Audience Engagement

Margarita Kompelmakher details the Alliance Theatre’s process of adapting Working into a community-engaged production that both modeled grassroots organizing and told the story of the work of organizers in the city.

Tara Brooke Watkins reflects on the legacy of Robbie McCauley, who challenged the status quo of theatre systems, from the classroom to the rehearsal room to productions.

Fumbani Innot Phiri Jr. details the creative process of the production of The Vagina Monologues that took place during 16 Days of Activism in Malawi and offers his thoughts, as an audience member, on the show’s big impact.

Merve Parla shares her experience with Netherlands-based dance company Club Guy & Roni’s recent production of Swan Lake, an interactive experience with both offline and online components.

Heidi Coleman and Patrick Jagoda discuss alternate reality games (ARG) as a means of motivating audiences to take action, what goes into creating ARGs, game-based improvisation, and more.

In the last conversation of the Performing the Internet series, curator Kate Bergstrom sits down with three members of the Detroit-based artist-activist collective Complex Movements—Sage Crump, ill weaver, Wes Taylor—to talk about intentional engagement in a virtual world.

In this article for the Performing the Internet series, Miller Puckette and Onyx Ashanti get together for a conversation about the changing landscape of multimedia technology in the arts, how technologically mediated performance practices have taken on new relevance in the post-COVID era, and more.

Tamilla Woodard, co–artistic director of Working Theater in New York, talks about why she makes theatre and offers several “what if” thoughts about how the field should move forward.

Seattle-based Jasmine Mahmoud talks to New York–based Autumn Knight about Knight’s recent performance Our Water is Melted Snow, geography and audiences, and staging and presence across screens.

Charlie Peters, who has spent the early days of the pandemic thinking about and experimenting with how physical comedy can (and can’t) live online, shares what he’s learned.

Isaac Mafuel shares a recent debate had amongst theatremakers in Malawi about how to best price shows, considering both that low prices are a way of coping with the circumstances of their economy and that art should claim its value.

Blair Cadden explores how immersive theatre can adopt BDSM practices—including negotiations, safewords, and aftercare—to create safer experiences for both actors and audience members.

Edward Einhorn talks about adapting his play Performance for One into an online experience.

Lavina Jadhwani offers artists several techniques to better utilize Zoom, whether as leaders of classrooms, theatremakers part of shows, or attendees of events.

Genevieve Beller argues that the current forced pause on society provides a rare opportunity for theatres to take stock, inventory priorities, and enact positive and lasting change, and she provides tangible steps to do so.

Kirsten Bowen reflects on Slovakia’s 2019 International Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra, which was programmed based on the theme “faces of freedom.”

Isaac Mafuel talks about Malawi’s most prevalent form of theatre, its history, and its impact and challenges.

James Montaño discusses The Donkey Show, cross-gendered performances vs. drag, camp as an aesthetic concept, and more.

Goran Tomka looks at what audience development is, the phenomenon of an implied or implicit audience, decolonizing institutions, and more.