Words are limited at expressing the absolute outpouring of energy and excitement that come from a completely packed house before a performance. It is a vibrant and living force that grows as the lights go down and then blooms in the performers as they feed from the people watching. The force is a fuel that moves like no other and it combusts into such a communal sense of joy. It's really an amazing thing-and it doesn't always happen, either.
Tonight was just such an occasion. It was our last performance of Urinetown, a wonderful student-directed musical I've been involved with for some time now. We've been having full houses all weekend and have had to turn people away because of lack of seats, but tonight we let everyone we could in the house. There were people everywhere! On the floor, in the corners, even up in the theatre's catwalks where we act several parts of the show. It was such an exciting house and that collective energy really grew. It is during those times that I have absolutely the most fun living sometimes that I have doing anything.
So this communal energy is like groupthink but in a good way! The whole group is sharing the same mentality, going in the same direction, and, to some degree, blinding their discomfort or perhaps other negative impulses with the idea that they're having a great time. World-reknowned playwright/actor/director/author Peter Brook refers to this phenomenon in his book The Empty Space. His reference is to the "Rough Theatre", which is created out of this communal energy but usually happens at a show that in reality is bad theatre but the group's excitement makes everyone in the group feel like they watched a great performance. This wasn't the case in Urinetown, however-certainly there were criticisms and small complaints, and even some dissatisified audience members, no doubt. However, the group mentality of tonight's performance left everyone with a sense of joy, excitement, and happiness-they had just had a good, fun time, and there's never anything wrong with that. It was a fantastic time and I regret that more people couldn't have fit into that theatre. The group was thinking positively tonight!
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1 comment:
I love this. I believe the original studies done on Groupthink have put a negative spin on the term. However, I see groupthink as an invaluable tool of community to allow otherwise minimally empowered individuals to achieve cohesiveness and oneness of thought that can be utilized to create an impact that can only be achieved by a force larger than the individual.
Whether it is producing an overall since of euphoria during a performance or event or unifying a country to overcome a tragedy as most countries did after World War II, groupthink has many undefined and less published benefits that I believe us Americans have abandoned for a since of individuality. The unfortunate part is that most people don't realize that there is bad and good in everything.
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