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Carlee Allard

Professor Yopie Prins

Great Performances

November 1, 2018

An Unorthodox Community

If you search the definition of community on Google, you will find that it is described

as a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. So

how could this relate to a live performance? How can a group of people who sit together in a

darkened auditorium for a few hours be described as a community? They do not live near each

other or have a similar defining characteristic. Despite this, one can in fact say that a live

perfomance does create a sense of community, because those involved, both performers and

audience, are sharing an experience, creating a transient community. This does not mean that

every live performance community is the same though, as the strength of the community

depends on the strength of what is being performed. We can prove this idea that live

performances create a community by dissecting the performances, “Death of a Salesman” and

“For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf.”

During a show, whether it be a symphony, movie, musical, or play, how the performers

interact with the audience impacts the community a great deal. For instance, a bland performance

is not going to evoke a strong reaction from the audience, thus weakening the takeaway the

audience leaves with. For the allotted amount of time that the performance takes place in, those

viewing and performing are in their own world, the performers creating a bubble that
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surrounds the audience for a short amount of time. In “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered

Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf,” the “bubble” that the ladies created was suffocating, not

allowing the audience to blink or even breathe, as it was an in your face kind of experience. The

performers were not constrained to the stage, as they crossed the plane that separates them from

the audience, by walking through the aisles and sometimes even touching those in the front row.

By doing this, the audience feels exposed, dragging them out of their comfort zones. When one

view’s a work, they can distance themselves because although something dramatic is unfolding

before them, it does not seem as real because the performers do not know that you exist. In “For

Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow in Enuf,” they destroy this

idea and throw you into the reality of the work, creating the sense of a community in that you

truly share a raw, real experience. The community created by “Death of a Salesman” is

drastically pale compared to the community of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered

Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf.” This is because the interaction between the audience and

the performers is not as in depth. In this performance, the actors stand with music stands reading

from a play, invoking very little response from the audience. As it is does contain some dry

humor, the audience did participate by laughing at certain parts but the community was not as

strong as it was in “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is

Enuf.” The sense of community that is felt by those involved in “Death of a Salesman” is almost

strictly based on the fact that they went to the performance. Had the actors in this play conducted

differently, the strength of the community would have been different. Though both

“Death of a Salesman” and “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the

Rainbow is Enuf” create a sense of community, the strength of each community differs in
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each.

Before a performance can even be performed, it first has to be created, typically from a

script. What lies in that script, or the content of a piece, can directly affect the sense of the

community between performers and audience. In “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered

Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf,” the performance was full of controversial scenes that do

occur in real life and are often overlooked, which evoked a stronger reaction in each member of

the audience. The audience and performers share feelings of anger, frustration, and hurt,

enhancing their experience and bringing them together as a community. For instance, during the

last poem of the play, a nite with beau willie brown, the scene reads, “ now gimme my kids/ ya

give me back my kids/ he kicked the screen outta the window/ & held the kids offa the sill/ you

gonna marry me/ yeh, I’ll marry ya/ anything/ but bring the children back in the house/ he looked

from where the kids where hangin from the fifth story/ at alla the people screamin at him/ & he

started sweatin like he did in Baghdad/ say it/ say it/ say to alla the neighbors/ you gonna marry

me/ I stood by beau in the window/ with naomi reaching for me/ & kwame screamin mommy

mommy from the fifth story/ but I cd only whisper/ & he dropped em” (Shange 47). By just

reading this poem, without even taking into consideration the actual performance, the tragedy

unites the audience and performers in a similar way that the U.S. united as a nation after 9/11.

The amount of heartbreak in this scene brings the transient community so much closer together

because together they are experiencing this fictional heartbreak that truly seems so real. In

Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” the content of the play brings forth feelings of pity that

the audience also has to endure making the sense of community more evident. In the beginning

of the play, Willy Loman’s iconic monologue sparks the feelings that are shared by everyone in
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the theater, saying, “I was driving along, you understand? And I was fine. I was even observing

the scenery. You can imagine, me looking at scenery, on the road every week of my life. But it’s

so beautiful up there, Linda, the trees are so thick, and the sun is warm. I opened the windshield

and just let the warm air bathe over me. And then all of a sudden I’m goin’ off the road! I’m

tellin’ya, I absolutely forgot I was driving. If I’d’ve gone the other way over the white line I

might’ve killed somebody. So I went on again — and five minutes later I’m dreamin’ again, and

I nearly... (He presses two fingers against his eyes.) I have such thoughts, I have such strange

thoughts”(Miller 6). Here, the audience is able to make a connection to his character in a time

where they were exhausted or tired of their simple life. This realization that is had brings them

together because they now have a connection to not only the characters but to the people sitting

next to them as well. The content of the live performance strengthens the sense of community

felt by members of the audience and of the cast because it contributes to the shared experience

that is needed to state that a live performance generates a sense of community.

The space in which a performance is held also affects the sense of community. This is

because the size of the auditorium, or the shape of said venue, affects how the performers can

connect with the audience and also how the audience feels in relation to other audience members.

“For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf” took place in a

very small theater space called the Keene Theater in East Quad at the University of Michigan-

Ann Arbor. The stage is shaped in a circular fashion where the seats for the audience members

follow the circular fashion and form right around the stage. This is a very intimate setting, as the

front row is only a few feet from the actual stage and can only hold at max, 150 people. Why is

this important to the sense of community felt from this live performance? Because of this close
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proximity, the audience reported that they could actually make eye contact with those who are

performing. This led to a deeper connection between the audience and the performers, which

then led to a stronger bond between the two. Also, the audience was able to have a closer

relationship with one another. Just by attending this performance, they are becoming part of a

community through shared experience, but they are also developing deeper connection between

each other. They are more aware of the emotions of the group because of the close proximity

they are put in for this performance. On the other hand, “Death of a Salesman” was in a much

different setting. “Death of a Salesman” took place at the Power Center for the Performing Arts

here on campus. This stage at the Power Center is more of the stereotypical half moon shape,

unlike the Keene Theater. The Power Center can actually seat 1,300 people, making the shared

experience very different from that of a smaller theater. During this performance, those who are

in the balcony can just see the outlines of those who are performing, not their facial expressions,

which lacks the personal connection to the actors. The connection felt between audience

members is unique as well because since it is a large venue, those in the transient community are

much more likely to be compelled by the group mentality. Meaning, if the group laughs, one

laughs too, and if the group cries, one cries as well. The community dynamic is still present in all

live performances, but the location of the performance does in fact affect the sense of the

community in that smaller auditorium create more intimate feelings than that of larger

auditoriums.

The strength of a community can also be tested by the reasons in that one takes part in a

live performance. For instance, when the Great Performances classes attended the performances,

they were forced to take part where other times the audience elects to be there. This is not saying
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that those who went did not enjoy the performance, but it does affect the sense of community

throughout the performance. A live performance community will be stronger if each person is

engaged consistently and truly did elect to be there. Also, the sense of community can be

influenced by the genre of the play. In “Death of a Salesman” the crowd was primarily donors

and people who were affluent, as the prices of tickets were very expensive because Alec Baldwin

was taking part in the production. When discussing in the talk back after “For Colored Girls Who

Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf,” we learned that this play was typically

performed in cities to black communities. This goes to show that every live performance

definitely has a sense of community, but it can differ with each performance.

Throughout this essay I have discussed the idea that a live performance creates a transient

community, or a short lasting community. By this I mean, when the performance is over, the

shared experience is over, thus dismantling the community. There are rare cases when this does

not apply though. If a performance is strong enough, that performance can transcend the theater

and keep living from thereon after. For a live performance community to make it past curtain

call, the authenticity of the work must be admirable. Meaning, it must make the community it

creates feel changed by what was brought up in the play. “For Colored Girls Who Have

Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf” is a great example of this point. When the

audience walked out of the theater, it was evident that they see the world differently than that of

two hours prior. They were presented controversial issues that happen everyday in a way that

resonated inside of them. The members of that audience will always be in a community with one

another because their shared experience altered their life and they are more aware of the issues
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presented. “Death of a Salesman” does not fit this criteria because it focuses on telling a fictional

story, with no cause behind it. The cause of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered

Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf” is to shed light on the issues that were in the play where

“Death of a Salesman” was just to entertain. Those who walked out of the Power Center after

seeing “Death of a Salesman” may have very much enjoyed the show but none of the events are

going to alter their perception of the world or change them as human beings. The sense of

community felt by those who partake in a live performance can transcend beyond the title of

transient community if there is an underlying message in the work that resonated within those

attending the performance.

In the beginning of this paper, we asked the question: How can a group of people who sit

together in a darkened auditorium for a few hours be described as a community? One can in fact

say that a live perfomance does create a sense of community, because those involved, both

performers and audience, are sharing an experience, creating a transient community. To prove

this point, we dissected the two plays “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered

Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf” by Ntozake Shange and “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur

Miller to further expand on how the qualities of a performance can affect the sense of a

community and how that same sense can still be evident within a performance but still be totally

unique from any other live performance. The next time you are taking part in a live performance,

whether that be as a performer or an audience member, I challenge you to look around at the

specific qualities of the performance that we discussed in this essay, and calculate the strength of

your community. Do it quickly, because depending on the strength of the performance, it may be

gone before you know it.

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Works Cited

Miller, Arthur. “Death of a Salesman.” (1949). Theatrical Script.

Shange, Ntozake. “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is

Enuf.” (2010). Theatrical Script.