How to Improve Audience Engagement. Learning from Ancient Greece

Presented by Nataša Pantović art

Athenian culture was ‘cast’ directly through theatre, it was moulded, and remoulded now inhabit not only our dreams, but our history, or legal speeches, philosophical dialogues, love thoughts or the interior decor of houses. Internet culture is “cast” directly through Internet and Society still places a great premium on entertainers who fit the bill while the rest is badly paid or not paid at all.

Modern psychologists argue that the origins of theatre archetypal roles lie deep in human beings collective sub consciousness, manifested in the repertoire of every human culture at any point of time. When the travel was limited, theatre had the function of philosophers, prophets and historians. Aristotle suggests using feelings. Laughter, fear, was most commonly used: Gladiator fights, slaves with lions, etc. Exploiting the mood of the crowd.

Following own research, I was particularly interested in Ancient Greek Improvisation Triangle from The Theatrical Cast of Athens:

To use the Dicaeopolis actor’s words, “A ‘must appear to be’ B in the eyes the audience. In this triangular process, two parties exist and are present: A (the actor) and C (the spectator). But B - the role - is improvised. B could be an animal, a symbol, or a god. B could be dead, as yet unborn.”

The actors were called: Apollo-dorus (embedded with Apollo’s spirit). In Greek myth, Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo (Sun), a virgin huntress, the Greek goddess of the Moon. At Ephesus, Turkey, we find remains of an Artemis (Ἄρτεμις ) Temple destroyed the very same day when Alexander the Great was born. When asked why wasn't she able to protect her own home, the temple in Ephesus, that was burnt by madmen in 356 BC, she said that she was in Pella, the capital of Macedonia (near Thessaloniki), assisting at Olympius and Philip son's birth. The Temple was so impressive that it was together with Egyptian pyramids listed as one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Aristotle tells us of star actors like Theodorus who travelled the Mediterranean world with great acts of Antigone, Electra, and Hecuba.

Theatre is perceived as being more about viewing. Or is it?

Theoros the one who leaves to participate in a religious or state rituals where participation is a must (singing to God or King). The theoros is an engaged witness of the political or religious life, an ambassador.

The idea of exploring the world through theatre, Plato uses to describe the audience chained to their chairs in the cave. Plato’s Republic excludes art.

Audience Engagement

In 2020, there were 1.32 billion movie theatre admissions in the United States, whilst 2021 turned out to be another difficult year for cinema goers in Europe with the ongoing closures of cinemas and theatre venues. The ‘theatre goers’ are now perceived as niche audiences. Hesitancy among audiences to return to theatres bring back a basic question: Why theatre? Why art?

The conscious or subconscious multi-layered war is now expressed as huge generation gap where ‘popular’ entertainment forms, internet gurus or music industry influence the minds of many making art redundant. Self-centred internet educated generation have seen it all. So where do we go from here? How do we learn from each other?

Who is our audience?

In the age of social media video games have fully interactive narrative.

Artists should aim to understand and engage audiences in all steps of the creation process.

Knowledge of methods and process stays fragmented.

Actor / Act / Audience

Actor works for weeks to perfect the Act, where is the audience?

The audience for the Theatre became “Niche”

We got different types of audiences: the museum community aged 50+ fully understanding the subject matter.

Internet Boom & Audiance Participation 

Everyday communications channels, with the use of background music made TicTock explode. How do we learn from this?

Many businesses experience social media as a mean to reach more customers, reach more social targeted groups.

Internet or TV educated audience (as supposed to reading books educated) wishes to be engaged, the most viewed radio shows are the ones where  the participation is encouraged, emotional entertainment of an ancient bull fight or a circus. The participation of audience in theatre, or storytelling or singing or dancing is becoming a must.

Audiences participate fully in the performance when they interact with other audiences, this concept has been fully explored within the sports venues.

Building community, putting a face on the brand, sharing is the key to this exchange.

Risks

In the time of Aristotle & Shakespeare the artists had to be prepared for eggs mockery or an applause.

Kings were served “classical music”, a coincidental yawn could have ruined the composer. Art is trapped with the class re/presentation.

Audiences wish to be entertained and they have seen it all, so why border getting out of the house?

Artists are not entertainers, their work is there to move the audience, & speak the truth.

The refugee dance done by refugees was moving. A theatre performance "Chair" acted by a beautiful, intelligent autistic youth, representing an autistic child in the futuristic setting was deeply effective.

Singing “Mamma Mia” was fully lip-singed by international artists visiting Malta, because the crowd was fully ready to engage. Is the crowd always ready to engage? Television, video and the internet made true musicians super-conscious of their music abilities. I have recently experienced a jamming session full of musicians & music instruments where none were willing to participate / share. So entertainment is everywhere yet engaging audiences is a complex task.

Fi Do by Manifesto Poetico in Malta

“Fi Do” mixes music effects with footage of dogs to achieve its elaborate effects. One result of having real dogs among the audience members is that the doggy dialogues become real, when the audience tune in and out in favour of the pleasure of watching a pack of actors solve their problems. Moments of cleverness are constant, as when Mattias Camilleri narrates the show, with a spectacular choir singing their best tunes... 

Artistic Team & Cast

Direction Manifesto Poetico, Carlos García Estévez and Paige Allerton

Music Composer Karl Fiorini

Conductor Riccardo Bianchi

Choristers Kor Malta

Production Designer Nicole Cuschieri

Musicians Philip Attard, Matthew Polidano, Joseph Vella, Godfrey Mifsud

Contributing Artists Maya Mifsud, Alessandra Sgobio, Matteo Calleja Tonna, Ema Sintayu Pantovic, Sarah Azzopardi, Matthias Camilleri, Sean Briffa, Julienne Restall

Fi Do short Video 

“Little by little, this popular theatre would disappear and was starting to be at the service of the bourgeoisie.”

— Carlos García Estévez

Commedia Today from Fair Assembly on Vimeo.

Italian Theatre Shamans

Learning from Lecture The Maltese and La Commedia Dell’Arte