I teach high school English and theatre. I am well aware of students’ sensitivity to their physical and behavioral image in front of their friends. It is not really a joke to say that many kids behave as if a reality TV camera was following them and broadcasting their every move to millions.
Yet it is not only high school students who have a sense that they are performing in public. Their parents and families behave that way, too. And like their kids, they have a very focused sense of audience.
I have always been uncomfortable with the cheering and yelling at our high school graduation. I have written about it. Similarly, I avoid events, especially performing arts events, where there is a great deal of audience screaming of student names. Not only does it make me uncomfortable, it shifts the focus from those on stage (whatever the nature of that stage) to those in the audience.
I have increasingly seen this overzealous cheering as a kind of performance. It is an attempt by non-performers to get in on the act. There are many ways we can show our pride and appreciation for a graduate, performer, athlete, or actor. When the means is screaming their name (often having the effect of making it impossible to hear the next graduate’s name or to appreciate the performance itself), an odd alliance has formed. The performer (or graduate) gets extra attention (which might feel good) and so does the audience member – but the others pay the price for this. It is a kind of theft.
It is that second part that strikes me as problematic. Graduation is not about the audience. A performance, game, or ceremony is not about the viewers. The focus should be on the kids. But some of us just can’t let them shine.
There are many times when people put on a show. They want the attention that actors, athletes, and public figures enjoy. Being silently (or appropriately) supportive is inadequate because they want to steal the spotlight or at the very least share it.
That is what the screamer does. That is what the person yelling, “Yeah, Muffy” at the show is doing. They are joining the show. They are moving themselves into the center, where they don’t belong. They are saying, “I’m on stage, too!”
Kids do this in classrooms: they want to upstage the student participating or the teacher instructing. It is a kind of power play: look at me, they are saying; I am so good that I can steal the attention from the person who had it. I can steal it, even if only for a moment, and even under the pretense of being a good and supportive audience member, student or parent. Aren’t I special? I’m not doing anything wrong. I am cheering on my friend!
We have a lot of kids taking our beginning theatre class. I wonder that we don’t have more. I am not surprised that many of those kids first need a instruction in giving and taking focus, collaborating, listening, and most of all concentration.
Almost daily, I see a student walking down the hall making faces into a smartphone. They are performing for their SnapChat friends. The number of likes that they receive on Instagram or Facebook is very important. Performances are more important if they are for larger audiences.
Why this need to steal focus? Why the desire to grab the camera and be liked? Why the desire to photo-bomb, yell out, or upstage? Are we starved for attention and positive reinforcement? Are we addicted to it?
In the theatre, we call these people stage-hogs. In some sports, they have a similar term: ball-hogs. They may be talented. They may be skilled, but they are not fun to play with. They aren’t team players. They aren’t generous and collaborative.
It is a kind of selfishness. It is a refusal to acknowledge that others have the same worth as we do. It says, “ Me and mine are more important than you! I can steal your center stage time because I deserve it at least as much as you do – even if I am not graduating, even if I didn’t work for weeks on the performance or team, even if I am just here as an audience member, I have the right to step on stage and be the star – even if the only way I do that is to pretend that I am really cheering the star on.”
There are lots of ways to show appreciation and support. Stealing the focus is the lowest and the cheapest. If you want to put on a show, try out or audition.
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