Content in this section centers one crucial aspect of theatremaking: the audience. How do theatremakers identify and attract the right audience for a particular work? What are the different levels of engagement, from simple spectatorship to participation? Amrita Ramanan’s 2013 series gathers thoughts from leaders in the field and is a great place to start, as are videos from Theatre Communications Group’s 2015 Audience (R)Evolution Convening.
Professor Christin Essin talks about problematic staging of gendered violence at a production she recently brought her students to and the importance of content warnings and taking care of survivors in theatrical works.
Nataki Garrett and Bill Rauch in Conversation, Part II
30 June 2019
Part II of the conversation between Bill Rauch and Nataki Garrett—the outgoing and incoming artistic directors of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival—touches on inspiring leadership choices, pacing yourself, and cultivating diverse audiences.
Several months after Pittsburgh’s Quantam Theatre programmed The Gun Show, there was a mass shooting at a synagogue in the city. TJ Parker discusses how the company responded to the crisis, both through the play and through community engagement.
Sydney Isabelle Mayer discusses the importance of terminology when it comes to “trigger” warnings, how artists can best offer warnings for their shows, and what it means to create a responsible theatremaking process.
Anne Hamburger, founder of En Garde Arts, talks about the beginnings of her company, and, with it, the beginnings of site-specific theatre in New York City.
Director Meggan Gomez reflects on working with her youth ensemble based in New Mexico to create _____ Historias, a play that is created in real-time in response to stories shared by the audience.
The Intersections Summit at Milwaukee Repertory Theater
Friday 23 March and Saturday 24 March 2018
Milwaukee, WN, United States
Milwaukee Repertory Theater presented the Intersections Summit livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 23 March and Saturday 24 March 2018.
Ten Thousand Theaters Conference at Ten Thousand Things
Sunday and Monday 3-4 December 2017.
Minneapolis, MN, United States
Ten Thousand Things presented the Ten Thousand Theaters Conference livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Sunday and Monday 3-4 December 2017.
Triple Play discussion from Theatre Development Fund and Theatre Bay Area
Monday 20 November 2017
Boston, MA, United States
Theatre Development Fund and Theatre Bay Area presented a discussion about the findings of their multiyear research project Triple Play livestreaming on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 20 November at 6:30 p.m. EST (Boston) / 5:30 p.m. CST (Chicago) / 3:30 p.m. PST (San Francisco).
ArtsEmerson and ArtsBoston presented Leading from the Audience: a Conversation with Susan Peevy and Candelaria Silva-Collins livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound.TV network on Monday 23 October at 6:30 p.m. EDT (New York) / 5:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 3:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco).
How the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre Partners with Communities
13 August 2017
Joan Schirle, Founding Artistic Director of Dell’Arte International, presents an overview of the history of Dell’Arte’s Rural Residency Program and the program’s relationship to community engagement in Northern California.
What can we learn about audience engagement and how and why audiences make meaning out of experimental theatre from a twenty-four-year performance experiment?
Broken Bone Bathtub and A Modern Theatre of Empathy
30 March 2017
Emily Cordes considers how Siobhan O’Loughlin’s immersive solo show Broken Bone Bathtub is a vehicle for audiences to find each other’s common humanity in a collaborative bath.
Impressions on the Neo-Futurists’ Take on The Great American Drama
7 March 2017
Cherry Lou Sy shares her experience seeing the Neo-Futurists’ The Great American Drama, which examines perceptions of the American dream and success in theatre.
