Another striking aspect of the drama presentations yesterday was how good the audience was. For the most part there were students watching, and the majority were from secondary schools, I guess from the five performing schools. Despite it being a fairly long afternoon (it took a little while to effect the transitions between plays) with some demanding material on offer, the level of concentration was high and sustained, and each item drew appreciative, sincere applause generally (not just from its 'own' people.)
One of my core instincts, which has almost reached aphoristic status in my mind, is that good art requires good audiences. I'm not entirely confident of this regarding the more private arts (poetry?) but I'm convinced of its truth regarding the public art forms, with drama and music in the forefront. I can't picture Shakespeare's audience as anything other than highly receptive, despite the cliches people fall into regarding the groundlings. At the very least they had a capacity for enjoying long, complex speeches, with a keen ear for the fine building blocks thereof. I'm not sure you'd find the equivalent in many places today.
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