There are many elements which make live theatre very special
-I enjoy audience interaction and having a live connection to characters
-I love tension from intense scenes or scary characters because this can be so much more personal, amplified and unescapable
-I love the the respect the between the audience, cast, crew and the production itself, since everyone is excited to be there and everyone including the audience is important for the shows success, this production becomes more powerful
When I see a live performance I expect to see aspects unique to theatre such as:h
-Theatre Conventions which could be larger than life like mime or the multiple uses of props and set
-Improvisation or simple Spontaneity -noticing interactions between characters and feeding off the audience response which could have varied slightly. It also adds excitement.
-Technologies of set, costume, lighting and sound which can be stylistic or symbolic to link to the mood or genre
The creativity of the technologies and the ensemble interaction are important to me as well as the attitude joy of the actors and the sincerity they bring to their roles. I like my mind to be opened to new instead, issues, perspectives or "morals" and be emotionally or psychologically "moved" in some way.
I have seen many amazing performances and I'm sure I'll see many more but one powerful production was "An Oak Tree" by Tim Crouch, directed by Andrew Foster at Circa Theatre (Circa Two) last year, because it left me mind boggled boggled and stuck in my mind for a long time as I pondered all the ideas it introduced. It moved me and took me into another world and was incredibly exciting and intriguing because of the extreme spontaneity produced by the second actor who only learns about the play throughout the course of the play (as the audience does). This made it clever and unique and took full advantage of being a live play.