What is the significance of eye contact in performance?

Eye contact is significant in performance primarily because it establishes a connection between characters. When actors make eye contact, it creates a feeling of intimacy and engagement, allowing the audience to perceive the relationships and emotional dynamics between the characters. This connection can enhance the believability of the scene, making the interactions more compelling and relatable. Through eye contact, actors can convey feelings such as trust, aggression, love, or conflict, enriching the overall emotional palette of the performance.

While other factors, such as memorizing lines or altering the pace of a scene, contribute to a performance, they do not directly address the relational dynamics that eye contact facilitates. Similarly, while eye contact can influence how the audience perceives a character or scene, it fundamentally serves to strengthen the interaction between performers themselves, which is where its primary significance lies.