Audience/Spectator

    "Theatre is the place where there is no need to lie." Jerzy Grotowski

In  our(Bibhaban) little theatre experience of 16 years  we feel that theatre is a way to live your life with your own voice, it is an existence for someone who want to think about his/her existence. It is a way of living where you can live your life with your own liking.As J.krishnamurti says "..to understand reality , we must know it directly and reality is obviously not of time and space  , it is in the present and the present is our own thought and action." 

In today's time when people are more individualistic than earlier days, a question might arise naturally " how  theatre can make people  realize the truths of time and their existence?". Poland theatre director and philosopher Mr Jerzy Grotowski searches for the answer, he worked on his project - para theatre and theatre of sources, where he tried to see theatre as an extension of  living with people, to feel people as a part of theatre, where there is no audience only participants.

Through our research work journey with open theatre , we realize that If we think about the word participant then there automatically comes another  word participation, participate, with whom you can share your views. Behind the word participation you agree to receive people how they are, their  existence, and if we give importance someone as they are then maybe someday we can make something new, where we feel for each other, and the society changes.

   Audience- the part of the general public interested in a source of information or entertainment, this is one meaning of ‘audience’; the question is what is the meaning of an audience for me, in my work Open Theatre. A few days back  in a discussion a friend asked me about my view towards my audience in my work, I tried to reply to her question - the audience for me is any person with whom I can share my very personal thoughts, he/she is not general public for me . He/she is someone special for me, like a friend with whom I share my thoughts.

Jerzy Grotowski once said that at least one ‘audience’ is needed to make it a performance - a spectator, a viewer - who looks at us and justifies our thoughts in his/her social condition. So judgment is needed for our work, a need to be social, otherwise we will be considered abnormal. Art is born from social conditions, the way you live, your way of thinking towards relationships within this moment. Art expresses this, so it sometimes helps people to feel their existence.

For the last 11 years with open theatre lots of things happened, some were good, some not so good, At times it gave me  pleasure , at times there were problems with communication, and  with this communication and miscommunication  I think about my movement , they are  friends, who  in this way  make me conscious about my work, my motive towards my looking   in to my art.

The question can arise what is an art for me? Mainly I am into theatre art , the art form where you can collaborate what you think, so art in the sense an expression where you can express your thoughts , as you feel it, there is no guru of it, as an individual your way of living is an art , an expression towards  this society, may be some agree with your thoughts some are not, but your thinking as a human being towards  this time must be expressed, the challenge is are you true to your expression or you compromise your thoughts  in your art form to become popular. 

yes  there are some rule as our personal life you can not ignore  them, so there are some condition to make it a presentation, but beside these there are  a relationship between your partners, with whom you can share your thoughts with audience, so that is important , if you believe yourself, that  your way of thinking is communicating with your  friend, then it will communicate with your audience, if there is truth, and  as  truth is a ongoing process, where everyday we have to understand this time  and  realize it, and experience it , which moves  us  with our audience/spectator .

 January 2013 

Director