Is a spectator a bad word?
I read somewhere that the reason we need to be with another person is that we need a witness of our life. I think we also love to witness people’s lives and the everything around us, that is a the human curiosity and without it I doubt that we would invent anything new in this world.
With that being said theater is a form of expression like film and dance and we all as creators (writers, directors, producers, actors) have something to say with our work. The audience or the “spectator’ is there to see, experience, connect and identify with someone or something in our work in order to receive some form of satisfaction. In the article by Augusto Boal
he talks about the different forms of theater I and most of them are interactive therefore the audience is the spectator but the participants (actors) are as well because the “forth wall” doesn’t exist that therefore the two sides are connected and communicate and witness each others actions.
Many movies such as Peeping Tom, by Michael Powell 1960, “Blow Up” by Michelangelo Antonioni 1966, have used the spectator as a prime figure. Even in those films and I think everywhere we can define the word spectator according to the actions and intentions behind. For example if you are spectator for the purpose to harm yes we can say the word spectator doesn’t represent something good.
