Audiences are the people who watch and listen to a play.
An audience that really listens and watches helps the actors do their best. It is hard for the actors to concentrate if the audience is talking or not paying attention. The audience is a very important part of a dance, music or theatre performance.

Even if the actors in a movie or TV show can’t see or hear you, being a good audience member is important. If you watch and listen carefully, you’ll enjoy the movie more. If you are a good audience member, everyone else will be able to enjoy the movie more.

critique – thinking carefully about what you saw and heard
in a performance, or thinking carefully about a play that you’ve read. Then saying what you liked about the play. And, finally, saying how you think it might be changed so it could be better if it were done again.

Criticism

As an audience we all critique plays that we see. It is easy for us to decide if we liked or didn’t like them. We may even decide what parts we liked most. But to really enjoy the plays we see or read, it is a better idea first to remember what we saw and heard. Then carefully think about all the things that made up the play, movie or TV show. We can think about:

• the play, the playwright’s choices about character, setting and problem/plot, the meaning of the play or scene
• what they look like, the sets, lights and sound design, the costumes, what the play looked like
• the acting
  If it is a movie or TV show, we also can think about:
• the cinematography, what the camera saw, how it let us see the characters and the scenery

It is always very important to be POSITIVE when we critique a play. It doesn’t help an artist if we just tell them we liked or didn’t like something. It is important to tell the artists what we saw and heard. Then let them know what really helped us understand and enjoy the play. Then we can tell them what we didn’t understand. This will help the playwright or actor think about what they might do differently next time. We, as the audience member, don’t need to tell them what to do – that is their job.

As you write plays or act in plays, it is very important to find out what was interesting and helped tell the story of your play or performance. This will help you decide what to do differently next time to be even better! This is how an artist works.
Here are sets of questions to help you as a playwright, designer or actor, and questions to ask after you’ve seen a play or movie.

• Creating the Play
• Designing the Play
• Performing the Play
• Seeing the Play