Young audiences and live theatre, Part 2: Perceptions of liveness in performance

Abstract

The concept of ‘liveness’ has become a key theme in performance studies, linking important ideas of presence to contrasting perceptions of audiences as passive consumers or active participants. Forming the second part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded investigation into ‘Young Audiences and Live Theatre’, this paper seeks to contribute to this debate by presenting a detailed picture of what the experience of live performance means for one segment of the live theatre audience—teenage school pupils—in one specific context—a school visit to a production of Othello. The paper follows an interconnected chain of responses to the live experience, directed by the process of self-analysis and reflection begun by the research participants themselves. The result is an experiential understanding of how for these young audience members watching live theatre was about far more than simply sitting down and watching a play.