As the lights finally dim and the curtain rises, a hush can come over an audience. Stoic and silent, many an assembly has sat in reverential quiet until an intermission (if there is one) offers a respite from the silent adoration. Save for a few quick but polite laughs, you have a crowd of Miss Manners-approved spectators.
But who dictates how we’re allowed or expected to react to the very human experience of the theatre?
More theatres are introducing the notion of letting audiences come as they are, to engage authentically with the work. Whether that means clapping in affirmation, vocalizing, or continuing to sit quietly, all are welcome in today’s theatre spaces. This embrace of the human experience can transform a theatre from a buttoned-up, stoic, and WASPy church to a place of energetic joy and sometimes pain—a theatrical practice that stems from communities of color.
“It starts in the tradition of church,” said Nate Jacobs, the founder and artistic director of Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe in Sarasota, Fla. “Where most of us get our first social training and development is from sitting on the pews of the church, and grandmother looking over and making sure that you don't get
