Low Class Theater

While the classier, wealthier theater companies tend to be viewed as bastions of culture and sophistication, theater remains popular with the less wealthy, as well, even with the advent of the new moving-picture eletech shows. These theater fans, called “groundlings” (so-called because most of them have to sit or stand on the floor to see their shows,) love the theater every bit as much as their wealthy counterparts, but in very different ways.
The theaters in smaller, less wealthy cities, or the smaller playhouses in big ones, tend to be known for being places of laughter, shock, and generally more earthy performances. While theater in the upper class tends to be highly stylized, formal, and elegant, theater for the lower classes tends to be places where the audience (and the performers!) tend to seek to enjoy themselves. As a result, theater for less wealthy people tends to seek broad appeal, and involves humor, shock value, and titillation. The humor could be a razor-sharp exchange of wit and sarcasm, or pies to the face, and the shock value and titillation could be gory special effects and lots of fake blood in tales of doomed vampire lovers, or could be an all-nude, gender-swapped performance of one of the classic plays preferred by the wealthy.
In general, many performers, playwrights, and other theater works tend to PREFER performing in lower-class theaters, if for no other reasons than it tends to be more fun for them, too. They can take risks they would never take in a more established theater, try new plays, or engage more directly with the audience. In this theater world, the audience is FAR personally engaged, and will not hesitate to make their displeasure known if they feel the performance is going badly, and in turn, the more seasoned performers know that if they can turn a hecklers insult back on them, they might get a better response than just ignoring it and playing the scene as written. Improv and non-traditional plays also flourish here, with some plays only being put on with the loosest outline of a script, and the performers encouraged to just run wild.

Participants

Like upper-class theaters, there is a mix of Guilds involved in the theater world, but more often than not, the Guilds tend not to be overly concerned with who’s working on a small play put on in the common room of a local tavern. So, there is a more eclectic mix of volunteers, hobbyists, and professionals slumming it to make a little extra money, or just try something new. Most major companies know that their less-famous performers, playwrights, and directors, as well as most stage workers, occasionally work in the smaller theaters, maybe to make a little extra money, or maybe just try something new. The more well-known theater personalities have to be mindful of their reputation and relationships with the wealthy, but the rank-and-file of the theater world just tends to love their craft, and will take any opportunity they can to indulge it.

Famous Individuals

Frederick Stavestir
Silk

Related Organizations

• Eisen
• Platinum Players