Tips for performing to digital natives

Rowdy, disruptive, lacking in manners and attention spans – the clichés about school-aged audiences are many and varied, but they're rarely true.
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Bell Shakespare’s Macbeth Undone at Exmouth District High School.

Audiences who are more used to iPads than stages can present unique challenges for the jobbing actor, but if you’ve never performed to a room of digital natives before, prepare to have some of your assumptions challenged.

‘The first time I performed in a school setting was for a class of Year Sevens in regional South Australia. It was a one-woman show. The vast majority of kids I met that day had never experienced theatre before. It was one of the most rewarding (and exhausting) experiences I’ve had in theatre. They talked, laughed, hissed and wiggled their way through the show. They were present, and demanded that I be,’ said actor Sarah Hamilton.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts