Effects of a Performance on its Audience and Participants

Performance provides the participants with several effects. One of these is evidence for a skills portfolio, which appears attractive to relative employers in the world of work. It has its use for presentations, where the presenter examines a certain topic and educates. Not only that, but the skills portfolio also shows elements of teamwork and represents a shared goal. This relates to what performing arts is, as the performance requires its performers to highlight specific topics and portray them correctly. This is a must, because the audience need to see something of interest; as that is what they paid money for.

Performing arts was a life-changer for me, supplying a confidence boost and access to new experiences due to my disability. This confidence-booster challenged the expectations of other people - especially my father. He saw my future in an IT-based career, as past talents lied in mathematics and computers. The thought of becoming someone else was an interesting concept, because it distorted the mind and mentally transformed me into another entity. My ability to socialise gradually increased over the years; since the oncoming performances required discussions with directors, teachers and other performers. These discussions are a necessity for the play to work, otherwise the play appears disjointed and its message disappears.

On the other hand, performance induces its performers with anxiety, causing the portrayal of various characters to appear stiff or uncontrolled. In some cases, anxiety has the chance to overwhelm its onstage victims; leading to the loss of compulsory lines, which then damages the performance and structural representation.

Performance shares the "U-theory" with sport and its theoretical practices. This theory resembles a Bell-curve, thus showing the relationship between different anxiety levels and effects on performance. An optimal level of anxiety lies within the middle (at the highest point), which corresponds to performance being at its best. If participants have too much or little anxiety in and before their performance, this causes the overall quality to decline. Numerous audience members see the decrease in quality; resulting in the belief that they paid money for a lower quality performance, or that the performers have an inadequate ability to perform.

When an audience member sees something of interest, it has the power to keep them entertained. A performance places the viewers in different atmospheres, which all relate to the specific play and its storyline. We call this process "escapism"; welcoming the audience to new experiences, whilst allowing them to feel involved with the performance. It encourages the watchers to discover performing arts and reveals industry-based careers. This represents the power of performing arts on its audience.

Spectators receive emotional and educational effects from a performance. This occurs through professional performance skills; namely acting, singing and dance. Performances have the ability to provoke various emotions; such as happiness, sadness and fear into the audience. As a result, this enables an audience member to form personal bonds with the character, thus producing a relationship between viewers and characters. They challenge the misconceptions given about performances, offering the opportunity to learn history and culture via its presented materials.   

Performers also receive their own effects. The performance provides sufficient evidence for a skills portfolio; which appears valuable to employees, as it represents the ability to present information clearly, whilst indicating other vital skills relative to the specific career. A skills portfolio helps with the employment process too, stating that the subject understands and respects views from another perspective. Harmonisation between workers is the result of this.