The audience is an important part of any performance. The arts are all forms of communication, and benefit from the focused attention of both the listener and the performer. Performers do a better job when their audiences support them with polite attention. 

There are often times during a performance when the audience is welcomed to sing and participate actively, and times when the audience is welcomed to participate by actively listening. Live performances in schools are important ways of information actively and of giving children the opportunity to witness live art forms that they may only have been exposed to on television or radio.

 As students develop audience skills and respect for the efforts of the performer, they will also develop a respect for themselves, and their own efforts, that will serve them for the rest of their lives. By encouraging their polite attention before the performance and complimenting them for their efforts afterwards, you will help them experience and develop that respect.

Pre-Performance Activity

Scott often opens residencies with an activity to focus children on developing a skill that is required for life-long learning: curiosity. His introduction of the activity follows. Feel free to introduce the activity in a way that makes the most sense to you.

[Activity introduction for older (middle & high school) students:]

"When I was a student, I often thought that a lot of what I did in school was irrelevant to my life and my concerns. The questions I was being asked to answer generally seemed either too simple or too arbitrary to be of much use to me. "Over time I began to realize that questions are what drive education. Take control of the questions and you control the direction of the education! So, in addition to the questions I had to answer to satisfy my teachers, I began creating my own questions to structure my own education. I dedicated myself to creating questions that were going to further my understanding of the parts of a subject that I found interesting. I discovered that...

[Activity Introduction for younger students (Middle & High School: continue)...] "Any fact, when presented to a sufficiently curious mind, can be met with at least one--and usually lots of--interesting questions. "Finding any question is easy. The trick is to learn to build questions that serve your own curiosity and further your education. Finding the right questions, interesting questions, takes some practice. And that's what we're going to do to get started: practice creating questions. "I'm going to read you a short list of facts, and for each fact I present, I'd like you to write down the three best questions you can create. So please sharpen up your pencils---and your wits---and get a piece of paper on which to write. "Let's do one together on the board first to get started...."

EXAMPLE FACT: "The number of motorcycles owned by a motorcycle gang in Moscow that has thirteen members: One." "Now please raise your hand if you have a question about this fact." 

[Write volunteered questions on the board. Brainstorm openly with the students if they are slow to start. My questions include:]

1. Do thirteen individuals really constitute a 'gang'?
2. How can you have a motorcycle gang with just one motorcycle?
3. How do they decide who gets to ride the motorcycle?
4. How did they pay for it?
5. Why don't they have more motorcycles?
6. Are motorcycles expensive in Russia? Is the gas expensive?
7. Do they make motorcycles in Russia, or must they import them?
8. Does the word 'hell' appear in their name?
9. Were there Communist motorcycle gangs before the break-up of the Soviet Union, or are they a new development?

 

"Now you've got the idea. I will give you a few moments after I read each fact to think and write a response. Please respond with three written questions to each fact that follows: 

	FACT 1. Salt Lake City, Utah ranks #1 in the United States in their per capita consumption of Jello.
	FACT 2. Asian countries are estimated to have produced 22% of all goods and services produced worldwide last year. In 1900, they produced 29%.
	FACT 3. The number of years the editor of Divorce Magazine spent working on Wedding Bells magazine: 3 years.
	FACT 4. The percentage of Americans who say that they would not enjoy spending time with their own clone: 70%.
	FACT 5. Percentage of Americans who believe they are more likely to see Elvis Presley than campaign-finance reform: 48%.
	FACT 6. Combined number of root canals performed last year on the two Kodiak bears at the San Francisco Zoo:
	FACT 7. The percentage of California's revenue between 1852 and 1870 that came from taxes paid by Chinese laborers: 50%.
	FACT 8. The audience for blues, measured by attendance at blues concerts between 1960 and 1990, has been estimated to be more than 80% white."

[Take a sampling of questions from a variety of students after each fact, being sure to solicit contributions from each of your students before discontinuing the exercise. Please offer questions of your own as a participant and facilitator.]

You may, of course, use facts of your own choosing. This exercise can be a lot of fun and, as students get used to the habit of having a curious mind, it can become part of your class culture. If it does, remember you don't have to have all the answers, you just need to know where to send the students to find them.