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Creatively Centred

Theatre and its Audiences: New Practices for a New World

At the end of June, the third event in the Creatively Centred series took place, focusing on the changing relationship between performance and its audiences.

Creative Central NCL partnered with GIFT: Gateshead International Festival of Theatre to discuss the changing nature of performances and audiences on Thursday 27 June at The Common Room in the centre of Newcastle.

Guests were welcomed along to a lively evening of discussion, theatre and debate on the subject of how performances and audiences have evolved and adapted, particularly in times of change and crisis.

Leading the event were theatre experts Kate Craddock, Founder and Festival Director of GIFT: Gateshead International Festival of Theatre, and Dr Helen Freshwater, Reader in Theatre and Performance at Newcastle University.

Kate and Helen came together to celebrate the recent launch of their new book: Theatre and its Audiences: Reimagining the Relationship in Times of Crisis.

Written in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the book explores the past, present and future of theatre-going together and examines the nature of the relationships between performance practitioners, arts organisations and their audiences.

The pair then welcomed theatremaker Andy Smith to take to the floor for an innovative participatory piece of theatre involving the entire audience. A Citizens’ Assembly, created by Andy in collaboration with applied arts practitioner Lynsey O’Sullivan, is part of the Plays For The People series – plays specifically designed and written to be performed by the people in the room.

Throughout the evening, all attendees were encouraged to join in with debate on not only the changing nature of performances and audiences but also on topics like the challenges of the pandemic and the realities of climate change.

Adapting in times of crisis

There can be no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns had a profound effect on how audiences view and interact with performance.

In Theatre and its Audiences: Reimagining the Relationship in Times of Crisis, Kate and Helen point out that the pandemic represented an opportunity for theatre makers and practitioners to examine and challenge their preconceptions.

Helen explained: “COVID taught us if nothing else, it is possible to do things differently. The book is a response to that sudden reevaluation and that sense of the possibility of doing things differently. [The pandemic] challenged assumptions around public space and all the conventions around distance and proximity.”

For some members of the audience, the restrictions placed on theatre makers throughout the height of the pandemic have led to a renewed appreciation for performance in the long term – for both the audience and practitioners. One such practitioner explained: “I felt that for the first five or six shows [after restrictions were lifted] people were just going ‘Isn’t it great to be alive?’”

Another theatre professional agreed, saying, “There is something about performance, live performance, whether that be Shakespeare or a musical, whether that be some avant-garde piece of work or whether that be… The Prodigy. There is something about coming together, just as people, that is so important.”

A shared experience

For theatre maker Andy, being physically together is equally important: “The activity of theatre is very often dependent on a group of people gathering together in some way. For me, this is best when we are all in a room together, but for obvious reasons this wasn’t possible in the pandemic.”

“I think we are still trying to discover what [the effect of the pandemic] is, which is why I think the book… is so interesting and important.

“It shows us that historical developments have always had an effect on audiences, have always met resistance, and have meant that theatre and other art forms and their relationship to the audience that sees and responds to them, evolve and adapt over time.”

The pandemic has opened up new ways of creating and consuming performance, while also creating a renewed appreciation among audiences for in-person interaction. Rather than being entirely restrictive, it has shown theatre can open up to a range of possibilities, physical and virtual.

Innovation in performance

Modern performance has the potential to be transformed by the emergence and prevalence of new technologies that are able to transcend physical proximity. While this would likely have happened organically over time, the pandemic almost definitely sped up the process.

“New technology has potential to attract and retain audiences,” explained Kate, “But [the book] also finds a deep ambivalence about how new technology might change the relationship between audiences and performances.”

“It asks whether a negative position towards the use of digital platforms fails to appreciate their potential to provide experiences of co-presence to develop relationships between practitioners and spectators, “she added, “and to [support] the wider greater accessibility.”

This was echoed by a member of the audience, who saw the value of technology in adapting performance during the pandemic: “You had to be creative to think about your audience.

“[It’s] absolute extraordinary luck that we had a pandemic in the time of Zoom. If we had had a pandemic 10 years prior to that, I think our pandemic experiences would have been all the less richer.”

For Helen, technology represents an opportunity to reimagine shared space and question the necessity of physical presence. She asked: “What does it mean to be together? Is it that you can have a really meaningful co-presence online?”

As technological advances continue to accelerate, it may be that audiences look very different over the coming years, with global attendees united by shared virtual experiences. How these changes will translate to performances remains to be seen, but it is clear that theatre makers will need to embrace innovation to maintain relevance and keep audiences engaged.

A catalyst for change

In the wake of the pandemic, and in an increasingly volatile world where socio-economic and environmental uncertainty are increasingly dominating the landscape, does theatre have a part to play in tackling these issues?

Even the act of choosing and adapting physical spaces can be a vehicle for change, according to Helen. “The book asks how we deal with buildings which represent problematic past practices and the extent to which they can actually be repurposed,” she explained.

For Andy, theatre itself can play a significant role in addressing wider societal challenges: “Theatre fulfils, or at least can contribute to, an essential human need: of being together and recognising each other.

“I think all art can, in some way, drive empathy and understanding as well as challenge and provoke thought. That’s why I think it is important that we keep working at it. If we don’t then I think we can get into difficult and problematic places.

“I think the polarisation that we can see in the current socio-political landscape is part of that. Part of me – quite romantically, but I think that’s OK – thinks that theatre could be a good tool to counter some of that, or at least think about how we might.”

Andy’s performance piece A Citizens’ Assembly, which encourages audiences to consider and debate the climate crisis, is an example of how theatre can be used to explore differing perspectives.

Andy explained: “I want the piece to make a space to consider something important together. I want an audience to be together in the room with the work. You can’t have theatre without an audience. They are the most important thing.

“I’d like us to recognise that we might all have different or differing opinions, and ask some questions about what we are doing and what more could be done. I can’t be sure that I achieve it, but I would like the audience-participants for the work to feel that they might have a bit of agency in it all.”

It seems that when it comes to theatre, Marshall McLuhan’s theory that the medium itself can be the message is very much the case. Aside from the content of a performance, factors like choices of location and inclusion of audience participation can play a part in connecting people and tackling some of the most challenging issues facing society.

Theatre and its Audiences: New Practices for a New World took place at The Common Room on Thursday 27 June with speakers and panellists: