How do you perform a play?

Answer 1

It has been said that a dramatic performance requires, at a minimum, three things: an actor, an audience, and a performance space. You can, if you like, add a script to that. The rest is up to you. A play performed by children at home for their parents is as much a performance of a play as a glittering Broadway Musical with a cast of hundreds, and ridiculously expensive costumes, musicians and lighting effects.

It is important to note that the audience is a key element in stage performance. Everything the actor does must be weighed by how the members of the audience will react to it. When the actor speaks, does the audience know what he is saying, and the emotional reason for him saying it? When he moves, will the audience know what he is doing and why? Will it help or hinder the audience's understanding if he wears a broad-brimmed hat? If our space has lighting facilities, what kind of light will suit the mood? What colour is it--is it morning light, or candlelight, or firelight, or greenish alien light? Which will make the audience understand and appreciate the performance more?