Audience member turned silent with hesitation (8)
I believe the answer is:
listener
'audience member' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'turned silent with hesitation' is the wordplay.
'turned' indicates an anagram.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'hesitation' becomes 'er' (sound made while hesitating - um, er).
'silent' is an anagram of 'listen'.
'listen'+'er'='LISTENER'
(Other definitions for listener that I've seen before include "One pays attention in order to hear" , "Eavesdropper" , "One who hears" , "Radio fan" , "Puzzle" .)