FIRSTNIGHT AUDIENCE

First-night audience: translation

Those who attend the opening-night performance should logically be the most open-minded and avid theatergoers. However, this audience—which has not yet consciously or unconsciously assimilated the opinions of the critics—tends to be restrained in its responses, thus provoking trepidation among the artists. In his bookEncore, producerDaniel Frohmanobserved that each actor needs that first performance as a means of encountering the impression that the character makes in order to "grasp its true proportions" (136). Therefore, asserted Frohman, "criticism should be delayed until after three or four performances" (136).