ABSTRACT
If, as Herbert Blau reminds us, there is theory in the act of seeing, there is also theory in the role of spectating. The theatrical audience is an entity whose competence depends on, as Keir Elam puts it, “the ability to recognize the performance as such” (1980, 87). This competence is achieved through the creation of a frame, or the “cognitive division, and symbolic spatial or temporal boundaries” between performers and spectators (Elam 1980, 87–88). While Jerzy Grotowski famously declared that “at least one spectator is needed to make it a performance,” (1968, 32), there is little disagreement that live performance “produces two way communication” (Whitmore 1994, 61) between stage and audience. But another crucial exchange of energy takes place through audience proxemics, the relations between spectating individuals.
