[Ansteorra] RE: Just a Question

[R. Smith]

> It's not just rudeness in the SCA.  It's everywhere.  I think that people
> are too used to watching TV, and too little to being in public places
where
> one used to be required to keep one's mouth shut when stuff is happening.
> I do a lot in theatre and music, and I am constantly amazed at how many
> people don't know that they should be quiet when the performance is in
> place.  I get annoyed when teachers bring school groups and don't make the
> children be quiet during the performance; isn't that supposed to be part
of
> the lesson?
>

I told myself I wouldn't say anything, but now that the word "performance"
has come up...

Is it a performance when it is done in such a way that there is no hope for
most of the assembled populace to hear or in any way know what is going on?
In theatre and music, do you encounter such performances, or perhaps is the
analogy a little strained?

It has always seemed to me that if one wants the populace to feel involved
in court, one should, well, involve the populace in court, not conduct
lengthy private meetings and hope that the people who gave money and their
time to sit around and wonder what's going on for hours will really get into
it anyway.

Some have brought up modern niceties like sound systems.  Sir Burke, the one
at ATYC was not a bad thing -- that hall is hideous for acoustics, as you
well know, and indeed, many of the courts in which I have felt like I was
witnessing the aforementioned private meetings have happened in that hall
(even when I have been seated in the third row!)  The ampitheater at Dakani
was also dicey for audibility and worse for visibility, as you pointed out.

Of course, a more period solution is to make use of the herald -- that's
what he's there for.  Master Modius is to be commended for his habit, when
heralding, of explaining to the populace what is transpiring in such a way
that they can hear it and feel that they're witnessing something instead of
sitting and waiting for it to end.  I know of other court heralds who are
good about this as well and I applaud them all.

I end where I started out.  If you want people involved, _involve them._
Otherwise, how can you be surprised when they lose interest and patience
after the first couple of hours?  At the end of the day, people play in the
SCA for recreation, right?

A final comment: Mistress Morgan says that people who are asked to hush in
court sometimes act as if the person doing the hushing is in the wrong.  I
do not mean at all to suggest this reaction is proper or appropriate in any
way, no matter how bored the individual might be, so that should not be
taken to be my point.  As it happens, I also don't mean to suggest that it's
proper or correct to behave in such a way that one disrupts the experience
for others.  What I do mean to do is draw attention to what has seemed to me
for the few years I've been in the SCA to be an ongoing contradiction -- the
notion that people will wish to be attentive to, even moved by, something
they aren't even able to witness, much less be a part of.  If that's
performance, it is merely performance for the entertainment of oneself.

All said in a sincere desire to improve the experience for everyone,

Chandra

--
Lord Chandranath <russ{at}randomgang.com>
"Per pale sable and gules, a decrescent argent."
mka Russ Smith (http://www.randomgang.com/~russ/)