How can the audience gain insight into their own lives through the engagement of theater?
- Posted:
- 3+ months ago by byrcepower
- Topics:
- theater, engagement, audience
Answers (2)
Well, if drama, both tragic and comedic seeks to approximate the world, then how do we use them to do just that? How do we take theater and use it to gain insight into our own lives, moreover why go to theater, why take 90 minutes to sit and watch something if we aren't going to somehow use it in our own lives? I don't understand!?
If by engagement you mean 4th wall breaks, that's more for the immersion & entertainment value.
People (or adults) don't reciprocate too kindly to outright suggestion when it conflicts with their views. Through parody, theater doesn't have to argue with anything (not the least of which, the governing body which in quondam times could have you executed), it can establish the playwright's viewpoint and the audience can spot the differences in their comparisons.
Additionally, not all of it is intended - personal situations can vary infinitely in detail, and subjective focus prohibits certain perspectives, whereas comparison can allocate a different weight, provide an out of the box approach / solution; per xkcd 1053, a phenomenon whose presence is trivial to one who is familiarised with it could raise the right questions for another who hadn't heard of it.
Well, if drama, both tragic and comedic seeks to approximate the world, then how do we use them to do just that? How do we take theater and use it to gain insight into our own lives, moreover why go to theater, why take 90 minutes to sit and watch something if we aren't going to somehow use it in our own lives? I don't understand!?