The audience’s silence can be attention or confusion, and the stage must learn the difference.

Silence is not a single signal. A room can be quiet because it is completely with you or because it lost the thread four minutes ago, and from the front those two states look almost identical. Performers, teachers and presenters who never learn to tell them apart end up either pushing on into nothing or breaking a spell that was working perfectly well.

Look for the small differences: where the eyes are, whether people are still, whether anyone has picked up a phone. When you genuinely cannot tell, ask a short question rather than guessing. The answer costs ten seconds and saves the rest.