High profile actors - do they remember the empty seats?

A few weeks ago I met a local playwright in the supermarket. He was expressing the frustration about the lack of support for live theatre in this country - funding in Australia could be much better than it is. A local company, Stray Dogs Theatre, had just put on a production of a play written by Carl Caulfield called  These Foolish Things at the Civic Playhouse. Now, people in the local performing arts scene that know us will be the first to say that we are not the ideal, loyal theatre goers we should be, but we decided that it was about time we were more supportive and as there was a matinee, we booked our seats for yesterday. I'm not entirely sure how many people the Civic Playhouse holds (approx 205 people) but the audience was small enough to allow us to spread out. Unfortunate for the actors - nice for us. The Playhouse is designed so that the actors are directly in front of the audience which gives it an intimate feel but there is also the responsibility for the audience to ensure that they are attentive and responsive given the actors are in such close proximity. There must be nothing worse for actor morale than an unresponsive audience. I thoroughly enjoyed this play -it was very well written and the production I thought, was seamless. The actors, Paul Kelman (Tom), Helen Atkinson (Fiona), and Phil McGrath (Dave) were excellent. My only regret was that the audience was small and I felt that the actors deserved better. 

This led me to contemplate the fickle nature of performing arts and the struggle many actors must go through to "make it". How many actors must dream of a successful career where they start to be in demand and work offers flow into their agents as opposed to the agents and actors having to grovel and scrounge for even the smallest role? How many dream of playing to large and responsive audiences and of having a base of supporters who follow their work with interest? What happens however if a high profile good looking actor feels they are being misrepresented by the media as some kind of sex symbol and the base of supporters grows to include those who begin to cross boundaries and intrude into personal and work space? I think there must be a dilemma here - finding a happy medium between having a high profile as a popular actor whilst trying to earn respect and to be taken seriously as a talented artist whilst at the same time maintaining personal privacy away from media and supporters. Ascending to celebrity status must be hard at times to cope with. I wonder if actors ever look back at where they have come from, recall the days when they may well have been acting in a small theatre company and playing to small audiences. Do they remember the empty seats; do they dread that they have had their "15 minutes of fame" (as Tom in These Foolish Things mentions); do they ever wonder if they may end back where they started or do they forget - memories of the past lost in the surrounding hype? Do they forget the empty seats?