In the first half of the nineteenth century, audience behavior changed to allow for the twentieth and twenty-first century theatrical contract. Though typically discussed in terms of psychological orientation -- i.e. the observance of a "fourth wall" or the willing suspension of disbelief -- today's theatrical contract relies on behavioral conventions observed by the audience. The development of these behavioral conventions was not inevitable, nor was it the natural result of "civilizing" impulses or a changing playhouse demographic. Rather, as the history of the empowered and unruly audiences of the eighteenth century shows, the transition away from treating the theater as a site of lively social interaction toward attending the theater to engage in sociably silent inner reflection originated in the changing desires of the spectators. For most of (at least "Western") history, the theater has been a site of real-time negotiations --- between spectator and theater maker, not to mention spectator and spectator -- about whose will would govern the playhouse. These negotiations, particularly evident when spectators rioted to repel attempted infringements upon what they perceived as their theatrical rights, reveal an eighteenth century notion of theatrical citizenship, which brought with it the rights, privileges, and obligations of a de facto social contract. As the notion of theatrical citizenship developed, so, too, did the audience's sense of itself as an audience -- that is, spectators came to see themselves as a community gathered primarily for the purpose of listening to and observing what transpired onstage.