The play I'm stage-managing opened last night. We had about 25 audience members, which was a nice if small crowd. They were a bit afraid to laugh during the first play (which has only a few humorous moments anyway) but warmed up considerably by the second (comedic) one-act.
I've found that a good rule of thumb is: "Enough" people are in the audience if you get at least three times as many audience members as you have cast members.
That may not sound like much, but any actor can tell you stories of doing a big-cast show for a single audience member, or two, or three. Small audiences just kill comedies, because a lot of people are afraid to laugh out loud in a big empty theatre.
That's probably why they're not onstage in the first place. :)
A second good rule of thumb if you're doing a comedy is: hire a stage manager with a big, hearty laugh. My grad school friend Jeff could probably rent himself out for this purpose, as he was an ideal audience member in addition to being a terrific techie. You could hear his laugh in the lobby outside the theatre no matter where he sat. We didn't have a "laugher" in the audience last night so it took longer for people to feel comfortable with laughing out loud, I think.
Still, all went well. Five shows to go and no tech horror stories yet.
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