A D&D for and with audiences. Max Barton, 28 January 2015 Douglas, Jenny Dewar, Sian Rees, Rosanna Lowton, Sophia Sibthorpe, Kevin Shen, Sarah Dean, Dean Rodgers, Rachael, Chris Harrison, Charlie + many more who popped in or didn’t put their names on the list at the end. This was a thrilling conversation, that has led to some great action points moving forwards. The opening provocation was that almost every session I have been to at D&D has at some point landed on Audience (with a capital A) - how they decide what to see, what excites them, who they are, how involved should they be etc etc. Many of these have been extremely productive sessions, but I can’t help always feeling that there is a missing voice (or many missing voices I suppose) in the discussion, and that we can convince ourselves that we are thinking on behalf of the ‘audience’, despite the fact that we are a very narrow slice of the potential demographic. My suggestion was to hold an event (or series of events), where a broad and diverse group of people are brought together to open space about theatre, with the balance tipped in favour of the ‘non-industry’ attendants. *I want to add briefly at the beginning that the following day I took part in an open space event at the BAC about Backstage in Biscuit Land - here in a session about relaxed/extra-live performances, we talked a lot more about new ways of defining who an audience is and how they are encouraged/enabled to watch shows - this discussion could and should very much be part of the larger topic moving forwards.* Interestingly the conversation opened with the potential pitfalls and barriers in putting on such an event. Kevin Shen dropped by fleetingly to share that he had spoken to someone the day before who had turned up to the event as someone not involved in theatre at all, and that they had felt snubbed all day and not come back. A similar story was shared at the closing circle on Monday by Chris Grady. One caveat being that three (all lawyers interestingly) other people I know of turned up and had amazing experiences, feeling very welcome throughout *which can also be said of the BIBL open space I went to incidentally*. This was then followed by a frank and insightful breakdown from Sarah Dean at Improbable who has thought and talked about such an event in the past - Sarah shared her concerns that the format of open space is potentially pretty intimidating and frankly just scary for a large number of people. This was echoed by some other members of the group, who expressed the feeling that theatre makers are particularly confident people but often they find it hard at first (particularly members of the industry who work behind the scenes). The first suggestions that came out of this part of the conversation centred around the idea of starting small, and tactically, involving venues talking to their own audience groups, or putting their current audiences forwards for a locally held open space. This certainly still forms part of our plan that shaped later on, but there was (and still is) a concern that, those who already attend specific theatres loyally aren’t quite the broad group we are hoping to talk to in depth, and that these events on their own might close off swathes of smaller companies and theatre makers from being part of the discussion. Chris Grady was a wonderful voice in this discussion, pointing out that the open spaces that work are the ones which centre on a specific community/subject of which everybody present feels a part. Hence there is a fundamental motivation for people to take part in the discussion. This led to further feeling that for the event to be successful perhaps it would need to take part in a specific location, or concern something quite specific to its members. Some discussion took place at this point about ways of altering open space technology to make non-theatre makers feel comfortable - however, a shared feeling led by Chris was that open space should be trusted, given how elegant a format it is. That being said, some very subtle and clever ways of helping people embrace that technology came up later. These included ways of aiding the potentially scary milling period at the beginning, by giving people some kind of sticker that identifies a group of which they are now a part, so that smaller groups can be explained the technology before being brought together into the big circle (this would ideally be in addition to the fact that several members from a ‘community’ would be invited together, so that each person arriving now belongs to two communities within the larger meeting and doesn’t feel isolated). There was also a suggestion that the talking stick could help ‘control’ voices that might over-dominate in specific sessions. Chris shared one more concern which was that perhaps one of our main aims is to make work that surprises people, so finding out what they want isn’t necessarily the best way forwards.* This was recognised as more cause for thinking very hard about what the overall question of the event might be. Finding out specifically what audiences want isn’t necessarily that useful, but part of the whole joy of open space seems to be that it brings our very rich and complex conversations, and I can’t help personally feeling that an open space event is likely to give a much more comprehensive insight into how to tempt people to see more work and feel less intimidated by theatre than the questionnaires and surveys that regional venues are asked to take out. Here Southampton’s recent survey was brought up, which was apparently very depressing but perhaps was giving very knee jerk and shallow responses to some fairly closed questions about what an audience wants. Chris brought up his Hitometer around this point, which gathers together 7 features that make up a hit (not all 7 are required). Here are the 7 for those who were curious! 1 Title – It should be already known to the audience or at least feel very familiar. 2 Star – A big-name actor, playwright or director whose association builds confidence. 3 Company – Ditto, a well known and respected company (i.e. the National Theatre) builds confidence. 4 Uplifting – The audience have an expectation of leaving with a positive emotional feeling. 5 Spectacular/Epic/Surprising – By its nature or scale, it gets talked about, and makes me want to talk about it when I see it. 6 Archetypal/Universal – The story or message resonates deeply with the audience. 7 Good – Hard work pays off with high quality that the audience can see and appreciate. Given that apparently the average person goes to 2 arts events per year, including cinema (thanks to Sarah for this statistic) - it seems crucial that a more in depth conversation takes place to find out how we can change that. *Again I can’t help strongly thinking of the next day’s open space here - I believe and hope Maddy Costa will be publicly writing up some of the thoughts, but a big one was about trying to relax the way people think about being in an audience. Encourage people to have fun again, and embrace the liveness, however serious the piece - this could have far-reaching effects, partly for audience members who currently require relaxed performances due to disabilities, but more broadly those from cultural backgrounds that find sitting silently uncomfortable.* Some of the questions asked for the next bit of the discussion sort of need the D&D to answer them, so I won’t discuss them in detail here. Theses included questions like: Should we change the perception of the work or the work itself? How cost effects an audience desire to come (some interesting thoughts about cost not being the barrier we think it is, but rather the outreach that goes with it). Jake Orr’s initiative to discuss with audiences (and without theatre makers) after shows was brought up here, which has been an excellent move in this direction, but of course can’t include those who aren’t currently going to the theatre. It was about this point when the whole group really decided the events were necessary, and began formulating ideas. This started with a question about how it could be funded (given that we as theatre makers are all happy to pay for D&D because we benefit from it, whereas perhaps audience members wouldn’t feel like that). The idea of an open space + FESTIVAL was brought up,. IE performances, food and drink as well as discussion. Making it an immersive experience, and using our skills as theatre makers to curate the event was key to the discussion. However, what felt more crucial was the idea of making people feel safe, on the same level as anyone else (particularly the theatre makers there), and not making it feel like there are two distinct types of people at the event but rather so many types that there is only one, as it were. So we talked about a rota for any theatre makers there to be part of a welcoming committee, and more to the point everyone taking the responsibility to not let the opening feel cliquey - to talk to people standing on their own. Here the invitation and the question became the most crucial thing to sort out. People would have to know why and how they were there when arriving. At some point it was suggested that theatre shouldn’t be in the question, but maybe art should. However, on reflection since I feel that this might be a mistake, and broaden the discussion too much, but to use the word theatre in the questions talked about here are some thoughts that were put forward: Why have theatre? How can we make theatre for people who would rather watch Taken 3? Should we just stop making theatre? Is theatre pointless? But since the other D&D I put forward a new one: Devoted and Disgruntled: What is a theatre audience? The action points: I will collaborate with D&D to talk about moving forwards with these, and welcome any thought anyone has at [email protected]. We think we will probably try to organise satellite events around the country, perhaps hosted by (but not at!) regional theatres, and then organise a nationwide event where a certain amount of places are given to each satellite event to fill. Tags: extra-live, D&D, Audiences, survey, Audience, outreach, Relaxed, audiences, attendance, demographic, audience, Regional, relaxed, regional, satellite