CONGRATULATIONS to fellow actor and musician Slashe for winning the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) Festival Song Competition 2023! I saw his performance at the National Stadium at the recently held Grand Gala celebration in Jamaica and I couldn’t help but observe his performance which I found typical of most Jamaican entertainers who try to arouse the audience with their usual engagement.

I will use this opportunity to comment about performing live versus performing for the camera. In the digital age, much of live performances are now video-mediated, which means interpersonal interaction via the use of computers or other digital media featuring video and audio signals. For this purpose, I am referring to television.

National celebrations such as the Grand Gala celebration, which is normally televised, will require performers to be more conscious of the camera crew when performing. This is because audiences are not just located in front of you but remotely through the television screen or phone and can be active participants or observers.

In a recent study done by Brittany Bergeman for her thesis titled ‘The Performer-Audience Relationship’ submitted for her master’s in communicology, she explains the difference between the participant and the observer.

Participants and observers of communicative events have different perspectives of the performance in which they are engaged. Participants of a communicative event are constructing the interaction together or co-constructing the communicative interaction; essentially participants feel a sense of mutual investment within the interaction or event. (Ramierez Jr, Zhang, McGrew, & Lin, 2007).

So the audience watching live can be referred to as the participants and the audience watching the television at home would be considered the observer or the remote observer. For a live performance, I believe the performer needs to be a lot more engaging with the audience by using his or her body, facial expressions and, of course, voice. There is a major challenge when the audience cannot really see your intimate expressions due to distance. So, what do you do? Apart from using bigger movements to communicate your message, the more engaging performance lies in the use of the body. Less walking around and more deliberate use of the body to engage the audience using engagement cues – cues such as open arms, gesturing to the audience using the microphone so that they can sing along; dancing to the song with your own choreography or standing still depending on the nature of the song or creative piece.

Roy Rayon, multiple-time winner of the JCDC festival competition performed after Slashe and was much more engaging and got the crowd on their feet. Rayon danced, pranced around the stage, involved the audience, and even used his costume to entertain by unravelling the Jamaican flag which seemed to be tied at his neck. While in transition to another song, he then revealed the flag like a cape and energetically jumped about bringing more drama to the performance.

Rayon clearly knows how to bring the drama to his performance by using his body to tell the story. The shivering of his body to the lyrics, “the fever a rock me, fever a shock me” and the Jamaican flag cape was engaging. The audience feedback was remarkable. People jumped upon their feet, waved their flags, and sang along with him.

As far as performing for the camera is concerned, Bergeman posits that “in a digitally mediated performance, remote audiences are constricted to a more observation-based role, with little or no participation in the performance”. I recommend that performers become more aware of the camera so that remote audiences feel involved in the performance as much as the live audience. According to Bergman, remote audiences viewing a live performance in which the performer does not directly engage with the camera may view fewer immediacy cues and non-verbal cues from the performers (eg, smiles, closer proximity). Both Roy Rayon and Slashe need to take this tip; however, it always helps when the focus is on your audience being actively engaged.

As technology changes, remote audiences’ experience may fluidly change between being a participant and an observer. I would encourage performers to be more conscious of the camera where possible so that they can reach more of their audience. A direct gaze can lead individuals to perceive that the performer is directly communicating with them. Accordingly, if performers are directly engaging with the camera as a proxy for the remote audience, the remote audience may feel more like a participant (Bergeman, 2019 )

As Maya Angelou said, “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.

Philip Clarke is a performance coach. He writes pieces focused on performances from performing artists geared towards improving the quality of performances.