How does the relationship between performers and audience shape the meaning and experience of devised drama?
Shape the actor-audience relationship and use space and staging configurations to create meaning for an audience
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Drama Unit 4 dot point on the actor-audience relationship. Staging configurations, proscenium, thrust, in the round, traverse and promenade, direct address, immersion and proximity, and how performers shape the audience's experience.
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What this dot point is asking
Because the audience is one of the elements of drama, the relationship between performer and audience is a deliberate choice, not a fixed fact. Non-realist and devised work especially exploits this relationship. Examiners reward students who can name a configuration or strategy and explain its effect on the audience.
Staging configurations and their effects
The shape of the playing space sets the basic relationship. Proscenium staging seats the audience on one side, creating distance and a clear frame. Thrust staging pushes the action among the audience on three sides, increasing intimacy. In the round surrounds the action, so the audience sees each other across the stage and feels part of a shared event. Traverse seats spectators on two opposite sides, emphasising confrontation and journey. Promenade moves the audience through the space. Each configuration changes sightlines, proximity and the audience's sense of involvement.
Proximity and its meaning
How close the audience is to the action carries meaning. Closeness can create intimacy, complicity or discomfort, drawing spectators into the world and making it harder to stay detached. Distance can create objectivity, spectacle or safety. Devisers choose proximity deliberately: a confronting scene played close pressures the audience in a way the same scene at a distance would not, so distance becomes a tool rather than an accident of the venue.
Acknowledging or ignoring the audience
A central choice is whether to admit the audience exists. Realist work ignores them behind a fourth wall, treating them as unseen observers. Non-realist and devised work often acknowledges them through direct address, shared focus or invitation, treating them as present partners in the event. Some work goes further and involves the audience directly, making them participants. Each stance creates a different experience and suits different intentions.
Immersion and participation
Immersive and participatory strategies dissolve the boundary between stage and audience, surrounding spectators with the action or asking them to move, choose or respond. These approaches can make an issue feel personal and inescapable, but they carry responsibilities: the experience must be safe, clear and purposeful, and the audience should never be left confused about what is asked of them. Used well, participation makes the audience feel implicated in the meaning rather than merely watching it.
Shaping the experience purposefully
The dot point asks you to shape the relationship, which means choosing it for an effect. A piece that wants the audience to judge an issue might keep a Brechtian distance with direct address; a piece that wants them to feel trapped might surround them. The skill is matching the relationship to the intention and being able to justify it. The configuration, proximity and mode of address together design the audience's experience.
How this maps to the exam
In the written exam you may be asked how a staging configuration or audience relationship creates meaning, or how you would position your audience for a devised piece. Name the configuration or strategy, describe the relationship it creates, and state the experience and meaning it produces for the audience.