A Guide to Studying the Relationship Between Engineering and Theatre

by Debra Bruch

Home

The Experience of Theatre

How Theatre Happens

Directing Theatre

The Relationship Between Engineering and Audience

-- Introduction

-- The Space

-- Technical Conditions

-- Climate Conditions

-- Safety

-- Theatrical Conventions

-- Performance Conventions

-- Style Conventions

-- Creativity

Theatrical Conventions

Magical

Suspenseful

The Unexpected

The Revelation

The Unexpected

The Unexpected theatrical convention means to surprise the audience during performance. Basically, the audience does not see or hear it coming. Neither is there a clear expectation that it will come. Close ties to the story is necessary for the Unexpected theatrical convention to work. Either the unexpected needs to be foreshadowed somehow, or it must make sense by the end of the performance. Just surprising the audience for its own sake does not work well.

Foreshadowing does not necessarily prepare the audience for the Unexpected, but once the Unexpected happens, foreshadowing helps the audience make sense of it. The beginning of Hamlet has the potential for the Unexpected theatrical convention. Marcellus and Bernardo speak of a ghost, but say that Horatio does not believe them. Marcellus and Bernardo expect the ghost to appear. All three sit down for Bernardo to tell Horatio about his past experience. At that moment, the three characters are engaged in the story and do not expect the ghost to appear. Bernardo says, "The bell then beating one --" and the ghost enters. The Unexpected convention can be used here with both a sound cue (not a bell) and the ghost entering to surprise the audience, even though the characters foreshadow the ghost entering. For this Unexpected convention to work, the bell marking 12:00 midnight should be heard immediately once the house lights are down and before the drama begins or at the very beginning of the drama to help the audience know what time it is as well as to help set the eerie mood. The director would need to make sure that even though Francisco says that it is bitterly cold and he is sick at heart, and Bernardo and Marcellus have seen the ghost two nights in the row, the three characters sit down to tell the story without an expectation that it will happen at that moment. Bernardo and Marcellus expect it to happen at the ring of the 1:00 hour and it is just past midnight, so they do not expect the ghost to enter at that time. All characters need to focus on the story. Horatio, then, would need to dominate the scene because he enters disbelieving and has a social/political standing above the rest. When the ghost enters, all three would be startled and afraid.

On the other hand, if the Unexpected is not foreshadowed, then it must make sense for the audience later. For instance, in Steel Magnolias, a gunshot startles the audience. Later, characters explain that people are preparing for a wedding and a husband of a character is shooting a gun to scare birds out of a tree. Later in the play, the wife enters with the gun which sets up yet another opportunity to use sound to surprise the audience. The audience does not expect to hear a loud explosion, the result of the husband using something other than a gun to scare off the birds.

© Debra Bruch 2005