street to theatre

[em]

coming from a indoor theatre background to then spending 15 years performing on the streets has a weird effect when you then try to go back into theatres...
subtlety takes a back seat, no longer the twitch of an eyebrow but a whole contortion of the face, a manic-ness on stage that feels like a tornado to the audience...good it was hard to adjust. take it down i would say in my head, but still i would shout and thump my way around, face going red with exertion and sweat. slow down i would say, but still the speed of a racing car would bounce around my body and send me flying....

[jester]

While theatre is certainly more lucrative and respectable, I am never happier than when I am either on the street or in a village hall on the floor with my audience.

It is very different, it is really far more invigorating and thirty people in a street show feels better than 100 or so in a theatre.

Why is that?

And of course you make real eye contact with the characters in the audience. You are having a two way converation with people you can see rather than a vague sea of faces in the dark.

[Peter Voice]

But the theatre allows for pure creations in a controlled situation.

The two environments are so different that while the subject is interesting, comparison is not really relevent.

Hey, though, moving back and forth between the two must be quite challenging.

[jester]

Of course comparison is relevant, even if only because it is interesting.

There are other forms of theatre that bridge the gap, such as performing in the round.

[Famos Bramwells]

Oh for god's sake at the end of the week you get a wage (tiny if you live in England) and it never rains and you can talk quietly and everybody meets you in the bar afterwards and you don't have to get up in the morning and the audience nearly always turns up and you can get REALLY pretentious and loads of other stuff so just slow down lower your voice and remember that after years of street performing you now have more stage presence than anyone else in tights. And if the show tanks you can always blame the script/director/theatre manager and anyone else who isn't you.
I love you all.

[jester]

When you put it like that, I seriously think I might just do a lot more theatres......

Not all street performers have as much stage presence as you Famos.

Then again, look at Rex Boyd. The man oooozes sheer effortless talent, he is the best ambassador for the USA ever in my opinion, he has far more presence than even I with my ever expanding ego could aspire too, and he still isn't quite a household name (Only a matter of time surely.)

If the streets are good enough for Rex Boyd, they are good enough for me!

[Famos Bramwells]

Rex Boyd, an ambassador? The man is pure evil through and through. Don't be taken in by his winsome Kansas charm and twinkly smile. I have known him for nearly 20 years and he has not got a day older in all that time. His garden would be really worth digging up.

[jester]

No it wouldn't, he takes the valuables off his victims before he buries them.

[Eveish]

There is an enormous difference between the theatre and the street, both are fun
I find the theatre is more focused, rehearsed and has an energy and buzz like no other.. the lights, the silence of the audience as the curtains open, making a full house roar with laughter... Its fantastic.

While the street has something different... a different buzz, an energy and a presence and a delight of drawing a crowd plus the show will never play out the same twice! Everything is unexpected, you can't anticipate anything that will take place, that too is great.

But really the biggest difference is in the audience. In a theatre, the whole audience has paid to be there and to be entertained. Whereas on the street you are entertaining anyone and everyone that walks past.. you have a chance to give people an experience that they weren't expecting to get.

I think street theatre is something that grows on you in time though. I have spent more time in indoor theatres, but the more time I spend doing circle shows, the more I enjoy it.

oh dear.. I've rambled!
weeeeeeeeee!
hugs to you all