Break Down The 4th Wall

We break down the fourth wall as soon as we step on stage. We get suggestions and do an audience warm up. There are games we play that are directly influenced by the audience. They yell “change” or “sounds like a song”. Most games are direct interactions with the audience. The audience warm up is a chance for the host to create a relationship with the people there to see the show and let them know how breaking the fourth wall works. A good host is almost trained to be a pick up artist. The smoother and the better spoken they are the easier it is for them to pick up the audience. I compare this to a first date. You have a very limited time to let the audience know that you can be trusted and are loyal to them. The host has to be genuine and not a slimy pick up artist or he will fail in his attempt to create a comfortable environment. What I am exploring right now is ways to take some of this onus off the host and put some on the other improvisers. Something that happened during a show I hosted that I really focused on the audience was the improvisers actually felt left out and not included. The audience really loved it though. So obviously there is a balance that needs to be found so everyone can be invested equally. 

Something the host and improvisers also need to do is give as much as they expect to get back from the audience. You can’t expect personal embarrassing stories from someone when you don’t reveal something about yourself first. This can be done in a subtle way by just being present on stage being honest and yourself. I am finding though that subtle isn’t always the best course of action. I am not one who thinks you need to treat your audience like children. There are a people who think you should treat the audience this way and preach it. That’s not what I’m saying. I guess what I’m saying is, just say it like it is. If you want the audience to open up to you and really invest in the show, then show them that you want to be open and that you are invested in them. Don’t just do a standard improv warm up, really take the time to introduce yourself to them and let them introduce themselves to you. The short form games can all be set up using personal information from the audience. We tried playing a fitting game based on what info we got from the audience. It was tricky but we as a group have a deep list of games so we pulled it off and it was awesome.

What was great when I focused on the audience was that they started doing the work for us. We did short form first half and a Harold in the second. Because we had been so focused on them they started breaking the fourth wall helping us along. This was a big lesson for me on how to get the audience more involved in our long form. Let them break the fourth wall rather then us doing it. This allows us to stay in our scenes and committed. We are all hyper aware on stage (http://find-the-sore-thumb.blogspot.com/2011/05/hyper-awareness.html) so we just need to extend this out towards the crowd. I am still playing with tools to give the audience in order to help them do this. The most important thing is them feeling supported and safe to come in. Help them understand they are another performer coming along for the same ride. It just felt very unnatural to break a scene to go out to the audience.. I am trying to find ways to keep the flow. If you think of the booing and cheering in a Melodrama perhaps this idea will make more sense. The audience is more involved and routing for their favorite characters in these plays. Use similar concepts to bring them in during the Harold.

One thing the theatre is going to start doing is warming up before the doors open. This will allow us to all cover a shift at Front of House and Concession and have us interact with our audience before the show starts. We will all be out there rather then hiding in the green room. If we are gonna break that fourth wall let’s see what happens if we never put it up in the first place. It will be important that we are not out there trying to interact with our audience (this would be so forced and unnatural) but rather just be there. Something we decided is that we all need to have something to do while we are out there. If we don’t then everything will seem forced and awkward to us and the audience. We will see how it goes as we implement it. This has been a very satisfying experiment so far and seems endless in fun possibilities.