Theatre and its Audiences: Reimagining the Relationship in Times of Crisis

This book explores the relationships between performance practitioners, arts organizations, and audiences, considering the impact of the pandemic on expectations and the cultural status of theatre in the UK. It argues that practitioners should prioritize care, access, and sustainability and offers a bold argument for the future of theatre.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 25 January 2024
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Written in the aftermath of the Covid crisis, this book brings the past, present, and future of theater-going together as it explores the nature of the relationships between performance practitioners, arts organizations, and their audiences. Proposing that the pandemic forced a re-evaluation of what it means to be an audience, and combining historical and current cultural sector perspectives, the book reflects on how historical conventions have conditioned present-day expectations of theater-going in the UK. Helen Freshwater examines the ways in which developments in technology, architecture, and forms of communication have influenced what is expected by and of audiences, reflecting changes in theaters' cultural status and place in our lives. Drawing on the first-hand experiences of festival director and performance practitioner Kate Craddock, it also contends that practitioners now need to turn their attention to care, access, and sustainability, arguing that the pandemic taught us, above all, that it is possible to do things differently. Part vision, part provocation, part critical interrogation, Theatre and its Audiences offers an insightful appraisal of past norms and assumptions to set out a bold argument about where we should go from here.

Weight: 292g
Dimension: 137 x 216 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350339170