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This dissertation addresses a significant gap in audience-orientated criticism by introducing a new approach to theatre audience research: audience contribution through the vehicle of a postperformance discussion. Audience contribution considers the physical and vocal behaviour of audience members as contributions to the theatrical event. Much scholarship has concentrated on the written and performance texts. What I posit as the audience text, comprised of audience contributions, has been predominantly ignored. The audience text is an integral part of the theatrical event that changes, adds to and informs the theatrical experience for audience and arts professionals alike. Over the past century the audience role has changed from interactive contributor to passive receiver. For the contemporary theatre audience member, opportunities to contribute to the theatrical event have been limited to laughter, applause and consumerist practices such as the purchasing of theatrical merchandise. Similarly in much theatre audience theory, audiences are perceived as passive receivers of the drama whose only active contribution is through autonomous cognitive meaning-making processes. The study takes into account the extant audience theory of audience reception and builds on this. Post-performance discussions, which have risen significantly in popularity in the last decade, are an under-explored and under-utilised avenue for audience contribution. A new method for the facilitation of post-performance discussions that encourages audience contribution and privileges the audience voice is introduced. Case studies of post-performance discussions held after performances of Anne of the Thousand Days and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? trial this new discussion model. An audience text is created that informs the theatrical event and a new role for the contemporary audience is discovered: audience critic. Through the post-performance discussions, audience members become active contributors to, and co-creators of, the theatrical event. Audience contribution has significant implications for audience theory and theatre practice alike. |
