The Paradox of Audiences Matthew Reason, Lynne Conner, Katya Johanson and Ben Walmsley Part One: Histories, Theories and Questions of Social Justice Introduction Lynne Conner 1. Ellen Dissanayake in Conversation Ellen Dissanayake and Lynne Conner 2. Histories of Audiencing: On Evidence, Mythology and Nostalgia Helen Freshwater 3. Disrupting the Audience as Monolith Lynne Conner 4. Who? Why? and How?: The Contribution of Sociology to the Study of Arts Audiences and Where it Needs Help Laurie Hanquinet 5. The Future of Audiences and Audiencing Jennifer Novak Leonard 6. Which Global? Which Local?: Aucitya, Rasa, Development, Ase and other Demands on the Audience Glenn Odom and Giri Raghunathan 7. Forced Experiences: Shifting Modes of Audience Involvement in Immersive Performances Doris Kolesch and Theresa Schütz Part Two: Policies, Politics and Practices Introduction Ben Walmsley 8. Alan Brown in Conversation Alan Brown and Emma McDowell 9. Are We the Baddies?: Audience Development, Cultural Policy and Ideological Precarity Steven Hadley 10. At what cost? Working Class Audiences and the Price of Culture Maria Barrett 11. A ‘Universal Design’ for Audiences with Disabilities? Bree Hadley 12. Fans and Fandom in the Performing Arts Kirsty Sedgman 13. The Role of the Audience in Forum and Interactive Theatre: Perspectives from Bangladesh Meghna Guhathakurta 14. Audience Engagement and the Production of Efficacious Theatre: Case Studies from Ghana Awo Mana Asiedu 15. Critical Perspectives on Valuing Culture: Tensions and Disconnections between Research, Policy and Practice Ben Walmsley and Julian Meyrick Part Three: Methods, Methodologies and Understanding Audiences Introduction Matthew Reason 16. Martin Barker in Conversation Martin Barker and Matthew Reason 17. Mixing Methods in Audience Research Practice: A multi-method(ological) discussion Emma McDowell 18. Quantifying the Dance Spectacle in the Audience’s Mind: A Methodological Quest for Neuroscience Research Corinne Jola 19. Continuous and Collective Measures of Real-Time Audience Engagement L.S. Merritt Millman, Guido Orgs and Daniel Richardson 20. Audience Interaction: Approaches to Researching the Social Dynamics of Live Audiences Patrick G.T. Healey, Matthew T. Harris and Michael F. Schober 21. Quantitative Measures of Audience Experience Wing Tung Au, Zhumeng Zuo and Paton Pak Chun Yam 22. The Benefits and Challenges of Large-Scale Qualitative Research Stephanie Pitts and Sarah Price 23. Creative Methods and Audience Research: Affordances and Radical Potential Matthew Reason 24. Ethics in Audience Research: By the Book or on the Hop? Katya Johanson and Hilary Glow Part Four: Shorts: Adventures in Thinking About Audiences Introduction Katya Johanson 25. Affect Lucy Thornett 26. Agency Astrid Breel 27. Co-Creation Michael Pinchbeck and Rachel Baynton 28. Covid-19 Tully Barnett 29. Data Rishi Coupland 30. Dialogue Maddy Costa 31. Integrated and Inclusive Vipavinee Artpradid 32. Labour Martin Young 33. Language Michelle Loh 34. Laughter Natalie Diddams 35. Marginalia Helen Yung 36. Memory Elaine Faull 37. One-to-One Rachel Gomme 38. Pantomime Robert Marsden 39. Post-Humanity Fayen D’Evie 40. Post-Show Diane Ragsdale 41. Rehearsal Anja Ali Haapala 42. Relaxed Lauren Hall and Paul Wilshaw 43. Risk Ella de Búrca 44. Sickness Verónica Rodríguez 45. Thresholds Stefania Donini 46. Touch Elena S.V. Flys Afterword: Covid-19, Audiences, and the Future of the Performing Arts Matthew Reason, Lynne Conner, Katya Johanson and Ben Walmsley List of Contributors Editors Matthew Reason is Professor of Theatre and Director of the Institute for Social Justice at York St John University, UK. His current focus is on experiential and phenomenological responses to theatre and dance performance, including through qualitative and participatory audience research. His books include Documentation, Disappearance and the Representation of Live Performance (2006), The Young Audience (2010), Kinesthetic Empathy in Creative and Cultural Contexts (with Dee Reynolds 2012), Experiencing Liveness (with Anja Lindelof 2016) and Applied Practice: Evidence and Impact across Theatre, Music and Dance (with Nick Rowe 1017). For further information visit www.matthewreason.com Lynne Conner is Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA. Her audience studies publications include Audience Engagement and the Role of Arts Talk in the Digital Era (2013) and Project Brief: The Heinz Endowments’ Arts Experience Initiative (2008) as well as chapters and articles in numerous books and journals. Keynote and plenary addresses (among others): International Network for Audience Research in the Performing Arts/University of Leeds, Institute of the Americas/University of Toulouse, University of Chicago Cultural Policy Center, Salzburg Global Seminar, Toronto Creative Trust, National Performing Arts Convention, Wallace Foundation, International Society of Performing Arts Presenters, Boston Foundation/Massachusetts Cultural Council, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Grantmakers in the Arts, Dance USA, and the American Symphony Orchestra League. Katya Johanson is Professor of Audience Research at Deakin University, Australia. Often in collaboration with public cultural policy agencies, she researches the ways the arts impact on people’s lives and beliefs. This includes the impact of transnational work on cultural and political beliefs, of reading on teenagers’ lives, and of the arts on local communities. Katya is the co-editor of The Audience Experience: A critical analysis of audiences in the performing arts, Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council project on teenager leisure reading practices, and a board member for Cultural Trends. Ben Walmsley is Professor of Cultural Engagement in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds and Director of the Centre for Cultural Value, UK. Prior to his academic career, he worked as an arts manager for ten years, most recently as a Producer at the National Theatre of Scotland. Ben is the Co-Editor of Arts and the Market and has published widely on arts marketing, arts management, cultural policy and cultural value. His monograph Audience Engagement in the Performing Arts: A critical analysis was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2019. Contributors Anja Ali-Haapala is an independent dance researcher and educator based in Brisbane, Australia. Her research focuses on experiences of dance as audience members and recreational dancers. This work informs and is informed by her community dance practice. Anja is a co-chair of the World Dance Alliance Asia-Pacific Research & Documentation Network and the Dance Early Career Researchers Community. She holds a PhD and BFA from Queensland University of Technology. Vipavinee Artpradid is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE), Coventry University. Her PhD research applied phenomenography to understand the phenomenon known as disability in audiences of inclusive dance. With roots as an educator-researcher in Singapore and Thailand, she has explored alternative learning pedagogies and queer disidentification through Spanish dance. Her current research interests include audience engagement, disability in the context of dance, embodied approaches to phenomenography, pedagogy, and film theory. Awo Mana Asiedu is a Senior Lecturer and currently the Acting Director of the School of Performing Arts of the University of Ghana, Legon. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR) and a member of several boards and committees. Awo currently serves as a contributing editor of Theatre Research International. Winton Wing Tung Au is Associate Professor in Department of Psychology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He started doing experimental research
