My point of view on the audience experience from Dearly Departed was good. The crowd wasn’t very big on Wednesday night when I went too see the play. I got there early not knowing if it was going to be busy or slow because it was opening night, but also the middle of the week. I noticed a few people in a small group pointing to the back of the stage to the décor when they were walking in and I even heard a girl say, “look piggly wiggly.” Funny thing is that my boyfriend said the same thing when he first saw it also.
The mood in the room when people started to arrive was upbeat and good. Everyone seemed already entertained in a sense because quite a few people were just looking at the background of the stage, and I think it made people wonder what was going to happen and what the play was going to be like. I think people could tell right away that that play was going to be funny and not serious.
From what I thought in the beginning before the play started about it being funny, and that people were going to enjoy it was correct. Through the whole play the audience just kept laughing. People were thoroughly enjoying the play, as was I. It was hilarious and people were responding well to the humor in the play. I even saw a girl almost cry because she was laughing so hard at the character Delightful.
I could tell that even as we were leaving people were still talking about the play and laughing. I heard a lady tell her husband that the play was much better than she had anticipated. Even riding home after the play my boyfriend looked at me and said, “Did the guy in the wheel chair say something about peanut butter?” We just laughed, and also laughed about the character Royce, my boyfriend just thought he was such a funny character he talked about it half way from Daytona to Deland.
Doing the audience experience for Dearly Departed was a good choice for me because people enjoyed the play and it was very easy for me to observe that. You can say by seeing the audiences reaction by laughing the whole time that it did confirm the thought in my head that I had in the beginning that people were going to laugh and enjoy the play. I also have a feeling that if we talked about the play even after it was over, other people did also, and it was quite funny I must say.
The audience definitely also liked it in the scene that the preacher had her TV show and made it feel like the audience for the play was the actually audience of her show. She had everyone clapping with her and her choir and the audience loved it. Most everyone in the room was clapping along with this part. Like I said before, the audience had a great experience with the play and it made it a great time for everyone.
