Sounds Like Listening:
The Hear Me Out Monologues pursuit of Audience
It’s been a year and a half since that day in March when suddenly we understood (or almost did) that audiences could not gather under one roof without putting our lives at risk. I remember getting some angry emails after I posted this piece [Social Distancing and the Power of Audience, March 11, 2020] on Medium suggesting that it was not a matter of if but when Broadway was going to have to shut down.
They announced a 30-day shuttering the next day.
At the time it seemed inconceivable to me that we might somehow find a way to re-create audience online.
And then that summer I mounted the first Hear Me Out New American Monologue Competition and on Labor Day we celebrated 12 finalists with live presentations of their monologues and an impromptu awards ceremony at which new work was celebrated. Although with an audience of 300 unmuting everyone would have been impossible, we did carve out a small audience “on stage” comprised of about 25 of us — writers, actors and competition judges. And this little audience within an audience enjoyed the show unmuted with earbuds or headphones and cameras mostly on.
It was magic.
And so I got a little obsessed.
Purchase one of 30 “We Are Audience” (Seen & Heard) Tickets to Hear Me Out 2021
Over the past 12 months on the first Monday of each month we’ve hosted Some1Speaking at which 30–75 folks show up to hear 5 monologues performed live. And those who show up with headphones or earbuds are welcome to unmute. And we hear them. And we feel alive. And the work is stronger. And the experience feels shared in a way it cannot when work is performed to a silent vacuum.
This Labor Day as we gather to celebrate this year’s Hear Me Out Monologue Competition winners, we’re offering 30 of these camera and microphone on unmuted audience seats for a premium. So if you’re as curious about this whole building audience aurally thing, you’re invited to grab one of these limited $22 tickets.
100% of the ticket price will go directly into the pocket of the writer who wins the Audience Favorite Prize at the end of the show. Act now.
Originally published at https://www.extracriticum.com.
