Audience Research Articles

Nandanar: Visibilizing Caste in Bharatanatyam Performance

What are the implications of a bejeweled dancer in fine silk on the proscenium stage performing a piece that undeniably centers caste? As the Bharatanatyam field reflects on the art form’s appropriation from the hereditary dance community, analyzing choreography reveals different bodily representations of caste. Many Bharatanatyam dancers globally perform excerpts of the Nandanar Charitram, by Tamil composer Gopalakrishna Bharathi. The plot traces Nandanar, a Dalit saint who is not allowed in many temples and ends with his immolation, allowing his “purified” self to unite with the Hindu god Shiva. I study performances of the Nandanar Charitram comparing two Bharatanatyam showings and the 1942 film “Nandanar”. To recognize how caste is both articulated and understood, I analyze choreography, interviews conducted with dancers, and forums where audience members share their responses to the works. I use Judith Butler and Dwight Conquergood’s theorization of performativity, acknowledging that while Bharatanatyam choreography is often “iterative”, it has the potential to “disrupt” dominant norms on caste and politics. Nandanar remains the most prominent Dalit figure seen in the Bharatanatyam repertoire. By studying representations of his story, I highlight the relevance of bodily caste politics in the South Asian diaspora today.

‘If You Will but Study Him’: The Presence of John Ruskin in the Plays of Henry Arthur Jones

Despite widespread interest in John Ruskin and the theatre in recent years, little consideration has been given to his presence in the works of one major playwright, Henry Arthur Jones (1851–1929). Although Ruskin's influence on Jones has been examined in broad terms by commentators such as Kate Newey and Peter Yeandle, a detailed textual analysis of Jones's plays has not been forthcoming. In this essay, I discuss three plays by Jones – The Silver King (1882), Wealth (1889) and The Middleman (1889) – and demonstrate how they dramatise key elements of Ruskin's well-known works ‘Of Queens’ Gardens’ (1864) and Unto This Last (1862). I argue that with these commercially successful and critically admired plays, Jones was at the forefront of communicating and popularising Ruskinian thinking for theatre audiences in the West End and across the world.

Writing with, for, and against the algorithm: TikTokers’ relationships with AI as audience, co-author, and censor

PurposeArtificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly important and influential in reading and writing. The influx of social media digital spaces, like TikTok, has also shifted the ways multimodal composition takes place alongside AI. This study aims to argue that within spaces like TikTok, human composers must attend to the ways they write for, with and against the AI-powered algorithm.Design/methodology/approachData collection was drawn from a larger study on #BookTok (the TikTok subcommunity for readers) that included semi-structured interviews including watching and reflecting on a TikTok they created. The authors grounded this study in critical posthumanist literacies to analyze and open code five #BookTok content creators’ interview transcripts. Using axial coding, authors collaboratively determined three overarching and entangled themes: writing for, with and against.FindingsFindings highlight the nuanced ways #BookTokers consider the AI algorithm in their compositional choices, namely, in the ways how they want to disseminate their videos to a larger audience or more niche-focused community. Throughout the interviews, participants revealed how the AI algorithm was situated differently as both audience member, co-author and censor.Originality/valueThis study is grounded in critical posthumanist literacies and explores composition as a joint accomplishment between humans and machines. The authors argued that it is necessary to expand our human-centered notions of what it means to write for an audience, to co-author and to resist censorship or gatekeeping.

Empowering the marginalised: Exploring the potential of Theatre of the Oppressed as an intervention for youth offenders in social work practice

Summary There is limited literature of the usage of Theatre of the Oppressed within Social work practice. In this study, a group of youth offenders (n = 9) and three social workers known to a Social Service Agency participated in a 9-week Theatre of the Oppressed workshop, consisting of activities aimed to raise critical consciousness. The workshop eventually culminated in a Forum Theatre performance, put up to an invited audience (n = 17). Data was collected throughout the workshop and performance and analyzed using an arts-based method. A focus group discussion was also held with the youths and the social workers separately at the end of the program. Findings Data revealed that the Theatre of the Oppressed games and activities built solidarity among the youths, although the cultural subgroups of the youths played a part. There was also a general increase of awareness and understanding of power and privilege, and an ownership of the issues that they were experiencing. While the youths felt empowered by the process of designing the script and sharing their stories, the actual medium of performing in front of a group and the power differential with the audience members was seen to have created a negative experience for them. Applications This study provides an idea of the impacts of Theatre of the Oppressed within group work settings, for marginalized youth offenders. Through the carefully curated activities, social workers may be able to tap on Boal’s techniques as a way to build rapport, raise critical consciousness, and empower these youths.

Conveying COVID-19 Health Information with CALD Social Media Influencers: The Cultural Role of Brand Consistency and Relatability for Identity Authenticity

ABSTRACT During the COVID-19 global pandemic, young people and culturally and linguistically diverse populations (CALD) were underserved by non-tailored government health messaging. Social media influencers offer a potentially cost-effective and scalable form of health communication for reaching young CALD populations. Little is known, however, about the characteristics of an influencer’s identity authenticity for reaching CALD youth, or how that authenticity is underpinned by brand consistency and relatability. Drawing on the authors’ commissioned evaluation of a state government initiative for delivering targeted COVID-19 health information to CALD young people (11-26 years) in Victoria, Australia, this paper analyses findings from thirteen qualitative interviews with influencers and target audience members to provide insights on identity authenticity in the contemporary digital ecology. The analysis aims to contribute to the limited extant knowledge of the role third-party influencers can play in government health communication by providing a cultural context for understanding identity authenticity when targeting minority social groups.

Virtual acoustics in distributed performance over a closed audio network

We explore an application of active acoustics used to produce a shared virtual environment for live musical performance. As part of a concert given in the Immersive Media Lab at McGill University, musicians and audience members were located in adjacent but acoustically isolated spaces on the same digital audio network. With computer generated effects and live instruments, the concert consisted of electroacoustic performances that utilized dynamic virtual environments produced by our Virtual Acoustic Technology (VAT) system as an improvisatory partner and a mixing device to blend the diffusion of electronic and acoustic musical sources. The performance, including its evolving virtual environment, was captured using spatial microphone techniques and distributed in real-time to the audience over an immersive loudspeaker system in an adjacent control room. Audience members were given the opportunity to visit the musicians’ performance space in order to compare the reproduction to the original environment. Overall, the blending of computer-generated and acoustic sources created a specific use case for virtual acoustics, while the immersive capture and distribution method examined an avenue for producing a real-time shared experience. Future work in this area includes audio networks with multiple virtual acoustic environments and distributions.

Implicit and Explicit Biases for Gender in Opera Roles

Abstract: Recent scholarship by LaBonte and Bryngelsson has illustrated an imbalance of roles composed for men and women within often-performed operas today. This study examines the possible implications of this on audience members, testing participants’ explicit and implicit biases for gender after watching scenes from an opera by Mozart, performed as written and also performed with the gender roles reversed. The experimental findings have implications for opera companies and for opera pedagogy, and we ask whether continuing to perform frequently performed operas from this era as written is propagating negative stereotypes against women, in terms of both representation and character portrayals.

Prefigurative Politics at Bread and Puppet Theater

Abstract Bread and Puppet (B&P) Theater is one of the oldest, most influential, and well-known puppet theaters both in the United States and abroad and has been at the forefront of puppetry, performance, and political protest for more than half a century. B&P also functions as a site of tension in prefigurative political theory, between creative world building and alternative decision-making structures. B&P fosters a powerful lived experience of prefigurative politics. The political process of envisioning alternative realities took place through performance, puppets, and the shifting sense of temporality in an isolated location. At the same time, B&P operates in a state of flux, at the center of a constant stream of apprentices, volunteers, and audience members. They rely on hierarchical decision-making to facilitate order, which challenges the prefigurative ideal of a democratic community. B&P models a mediated form of prefigurative politics in which a hierarchical governance structure and creative world building exist in tension with one another. The theater has worked within this tension to survive and even flourish. B&P complicates prefigurative politics in social movement theory and practice, as the hierarchy helps preserve some sense of order but conflicts with the more egalitarian vision of the world represented in their performances. B&P's intervention in prefigurative politics offers lessons to social movements and artistic practices in the contemporary resurgence of prefigurative politics.

From Temple to Theatre: The Making of Commercial Grassroots Performance Spaces in Republican China

Abstract: This article analyzes the transformation of xiqu (traditional Chinese theatre) performance space in Republican China (1912–1949), focusing on the performances in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. It investigates the institutional and habitus differences compared to larger urban areas, and changes in admission rules, particularly the implementation of ticketed admission, which transformed temples into commercial theatres. Disputes over ticketed admission, involving local officials, residents, and Japanese, emerged due to the new admission rules, which differentiated between audience and non-audience members and regulated entry into the performance space. This monetization strategy contributed to the reorganization of the local entertainment market and was followed by the conversion of temples into commercial theatres during the 1930s. This article argues that an alternative “modernization” process and spatial politics rooted in the aspiration to build a modern state was nurtured by cultural interactions but also emerged from the local context, which profoundly influenced the local spatial understanding and local society. This process was closely linked to, yet distinct from, colonial modernization. The development of cities modernized by colonization had become one of the main driving forces behind the development of the cities within their radius .

Temporary forms of performative space: Impact of temporary architecture on audience diversification

Abstract The term temporary forms of performative space was coined out of the need to define the group of objects under study that use temporality and the architectural input into a non-theatrical space, and serve as boundaries for performative content. One such space was designed and built in the previous part of the research. By analysing the space during its functioning, supported by examples from abroad, we offer an example of one of the possible solutions to the problem of theatre attendance. In the conducted study, we aim to support by a practical experiment the premise that temporary architectural forms intended for performance art can diversify and broaden the audience, thus making the theatre more inclusive. The method at hand involves the analysis of two performances. In the Jera show, we analyse the impact of an object located in a public space on the composition of the audience. The object adopts characteristics taken from examples from abroad. The Elektra performance serves as a reference example, where the object is present but not necessary for the relevance of the data obtained. The gathering of information – monitoring the influence of the architectural form on the composition of the audience – takes the form of questionnaires distributed before the performance. The individual questionnaires were processed into a spreadsheet from which research questions with follow-up responses were abstracted. Due to the insufficient number of comparable performances delivered, we can currently confirm the premise of the functioning of the temporary architecture as an attractor of the wider theatre audience only on the basis of the number of spectators who learned about the performance from the QR code, posted in a public space a week before the performance together with the installation of the object itself. This group of visitors surpassed 17%, which we consider a positive result that encourages us to create more testing events in various environments.

The late-period Sherlock Holmes: Nick Lane and Luke Barton on adapting The Valley of Fear

In this two-part interview, I discuss Blackeyed Theatre’s production of The Valley of Fear, an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1915 Sherlock Holmes novel, with writer-director Nick Lane and actor Luke Barton. In the first half, I go over, with Lane, some of the changes that he makes to the novel’s form to put Holmes on centre stage, his tantalization of audience members with ciphers, and his emphasis on the detective’s and his biographer-cum-sidekick Dr Watson’s friendship, on which so much relies. In the second half, I discuss, with Barton, his return to Holmes and how he has kept each of his performances of the detective distinct. We explore the detective’s thought processes and how he displays them on stage and, for the recording, on camera; his limited but meaningful engagements with Moriarty, whose appearances in the Holmes canon are few and far in between; and finally, the decisions that the detective makes in relation to Birdy Edwards’s case. This conversation is a sequel to our earlier one (Ue 2021) and it advances scholarship by celebrating Blackeyed Theatre’s significant contributions to Holmes’s afterlife. It shows the insight and care that is put into each adaptation; it examines Lane’s and Barton’s creative decisions in yet another fine project; and it reveals how a novel, one which has never ranked amongst Conan Doyle’s finest, can profit from a second life on stage.

Predicting the financial and viewership success of livestreamers

ABSTRACT Through three studies, this paper examines the success of livestreamers, as a function of presentation style (e.g. with or without webcam) triggering parasocial interactions. First, a content analysis confirms that successful livestreamers use voice/webcam features, and those features correlate with increased viewers and followers. Then, an experiment shows that viewers who can hear/see the livestreamer’s voice/webcam report more enjoyment of and support for the livestreamer. Finally, another content analysis confirms that the parasocial presentation style (i.e. with a webcam) is indicative of increased viewers and followers, even when considering two-way social interaction (i.e. naming audience members). In sum, although livestreaming allows two-way interaction, success for livestreamers may be driven by appearing rather than being social. The manuscript focuses on Twitch given its prominence in esports and livestreaming.

Community responses to persons with aphasia participating in CoActive therapeutic theatre: A pilot study.

Persons with aphasia (PWA) experience a number of communicative and social-emotional challenges. Reported experiences of PWA include but are not limited to, being misunderstood, isolated, frustrated, and infantilised. The aim of this pilot study, involving a Life Participation Approach to Aphasia (LPAA), conducted over the course of 2 years, was to understand community perceptions of aphasia while PWA engaged in an interprofessional treatment program involving speech and drama therapy. The interprofessional treatment program involved PWA participating in a therapeutic theatre program using the CoActive Therapeutic Theater (CoATT) while also receiving speech-language therapy. Each year, the PWA performed a different, original therapeutic theatre production for a public audience, at the culmination of their interprofessional treatment program. In this paper, we share data obtained from perspectives of audience members who witnessed the theatre production and aphasia education during the first year of the study and friends and family of PWA who participated in the therapeutic theatre process during the second year of the study. Responses from audience members who participated in aphasia education and witnessed the therapeutic theatre performance by the PWA during the first year, indicated an increased knowledge of aphasia. Friends and family members of PWA who witnessed their loved ones engaging in the CoATT process through interprofessional treatment, in the second year, reported that their loved ones benefited from the CoATT process, which was distinct from other therapeutic processes to their knowledge and that they were impacted by watching their loved one perform. These initial findings create footing towards understanding impact of therapeutic theatre in combination with speech-language therapy in the lives of PWA. They help us to obtain an initial appreciation of how therapeutic theatre and aphasia education help connect PWA and their community. What is already known on this subject Caregivers and communities at large play a significant role in and substantially impact the recovery of their loved ones (Dalemans etal., 2010; Grawburget etal., 2013; Kniepmann & Cupler, 2014) with aphasia. However, existing research suggests that persons with aphasia (PWA) are often misunderstood, isolated and infantilised by their communities. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The findings of our study reveal that friends, families and extended communities of PWA gain a positive and deep understanding of challenges experienced by PWA through therapeutic theatre supported by speech language therapy, based in a new CoActive Therapeutic Theatre (CoATT) model. This PWA community also agrees that therapeutic theatre in combination with speech-language therapy provides confidence and camaraderie between PWAs and strengthen connection between all constituencies. These results support the need for interprofessional intervention within the framework of a Life Participation Approach to Aphasia (LPAA). What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Treatment paradigms that bring PWAs in contact with their communities using an LPAA approach can increase confidence and social engagement for PWAs potentially leading to better outcomes for their individual speech-language therapy as well as create means of educating communities about PWA, and their stories.

‘Imagine you’re in the Opera House … ’ Learning nonverbal communication for the concert stage

ABSTRACT Top performers create stage magic through their command of nonverbal communication. While students aspire to the highest levels of performance, they may be unprepared for the intricacies of professional stagecraft. This study trials an experiential learning workshop about optimising nonverbal communication on the concert stage. Five emerging music professionals participated in role-playing exercises on stage entrance and appropriate stage behaviour, and discussed their experiences in the workshop and in interviews. Recordings were transcribed and coded thematically. Participants were able to exaggerate nervous, arrogant and confident stage personas, before imagining their stage entrance to an examination or the Opera House stage. As audience members, they experienced the power of performativity first-hand, and as performers, they grasped experts’ approach to stage entrance to enhance performance. Participants gained a sense of autonomy over their stage presentation. These early-career performers advocated the inclusion of stage training as a critical extension to current practice.

Disseminating Community-Engaged Research Involving People Experiencing Homelessness and Diabetes Using Participatory Theater.

People experiencing homelessness balance competing priorities resulting in reduced capacity to meet the care demands of chronic conditions, including Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). Arts-based performances present an avenue to expose others to these challenges. This article describes the process of incorporating qualitative research findings in a community-based participatory theater production to expose audiences to the day-to-day realities of living with T2DM while simultaneously experiencing homelessness. We conducted five focus groups and two individual interviews with people living with T2DM who had experienced homelessness with guidance from a community-engaged research team. We then collaborated with a local theater company to present common themes from these focus groups in a co-created play about the experience of managing T2DM while being homeless. We performed a staged reading of the play and assessed audience members' perceived stigma through a pre- and post-survey to determine if audience engagement within our theatrical production could reduce stigma toward individuals living with diabetes and/or people experiencing homelessness. This theatrical production is titled "Life Heist: Stealing Hope While Surviving Diabetes and Homelessness." Our work illustrates the feasibility and effectiveness of using participatory theater to disseminate qualitative research findings.

Climate Change Cyber Activism- Visual Communication Content Analysis of Youth Activist Greta Thunberg’s Instagram

On August 14, 2019, Greta Thunberg sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to attend the United Nations Climate Summit in New York City. The purpose of this study was to explore the messaging behind youth Cyber activist Greta Thunberg’s Instagram account during her journey. We used an arts based visual content analysis approach and the following research questions guided the study: a) How did Thunberg share her climate activist journey with her Instagram followers? and b) How did Thunberg’s Instagram followers respond to posts she made during her climate activist journey? We collected posts from August 14 to 28, 2021. Images, captions, and the first ten comments of the posts shared by Thunberg’s Instagram account were qualitatively coded. Themes that emerged from the arts-based visual and textual analysis included: 1) Thunberg shared her experience through journey storytelling and voiced ongoing activism and 2) Thunberg’s audience members’ top comments indicated a primarily negative response to her journey. We highlight themes from the posts and discuss implications for online cyber activists and communication professionals.

Transforming spectator into collaborator during a digitalised dance performance

The traditional construct of dance performances has predominantly positioned the audience as passive observers with little to no interaction with the unfolding narrative on stage. However, the advent of digital technology has paved the way for a more immersive and interactive performative experience. This paper elucidates the transformation of this dynamic through the lens of an interactive dance performance piece, “Moving Photon”, which endeavors to blur the entrenched demarcations between performers and spectators. By melding choreographic improvisation, interactive installations, and physiological sensing, “Moving Photon” cultivates a co-constitutive interaction, challenging conventional performative frameworks. Through two distinct configurations, performance and installation setting, the piece endeavors to transition spectators from passive observers to active collaborators in the narrative. The performance setting leverages real-time electroencephalogram (EEG) data from audience members to influence the kinetic dynamics of the installation, thus directly impacting the dancer's improvisational choreography. Conversely, the setup of the interactive installation invites participants to influence the musical score and the installation's robotic movements through motion-sensing devices, fostering a tangible feedback loop. The reflections gathered from initial exhibitions reveal a heightened sense of connectivity and shared authorship of the performance among both the performer and audience members. This innovative exploration signifies a step forward towards fostering more collaborative and multimodal engagements in digital art performances.

Exposure to Lived Representations of Abortion in Popular Television Program Plotlines on Abortion-Related Knowledge, Attitudes, and Support: An Exploratory Study

AbstractEvidence suggests that entertainment media may influence knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to health topics. After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, it is critical to examine how these media may be associated with people’s knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions related to abortion. Using a non-experimental ex post facto design, we examined whether exposure to any of three abortion plotlines was correlated with (a) greater knowledge about abortion, (b) lower stigmatizing attitudes about abortion, and (c) higher likelihood of supporting someone seeking an abortion among a sample of television audience members (N = 1,016), administered via a survey on Qualtrics. We selected three scripted, fictional abortion plotlines on the U.S. television shows Station 19, Better Things, and A Million Little Things, based on medical accuracy and airdates near each other in March 2022. Exposure to a plotline was defined as accurately answering at least two recall questions about a given plotline. We found that compared to those who were not exposed to any of the plotlines, exposure to any of the three plot lines was associated with greater knowledge about abortion and higher willingness to support a friend seeking an abortion, but not with lower stigmatizing attitudes. Exposure to medically accurate depictions of abortion on television may be one way to improve knowledge about abortion and community support for people seeking abortion.

Learning mathematics and its relevance through a digital storytelling assessment task at university

Storytelling is a valuable form of human expression that allows audience members to connect their own experiences with the narrative. As a pedagogical tool, storytelling has been explored mainly in primary school education but rarely in higher education. However, its potential for assisting students in learning mathematics and the societal benefits that its application can bring has been largely overlooked. Using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to analyse university students’ experiences of a digital storytelling assessment task, we explore students’ perception of their learning and the relevance they ascribed to mathematics. We conclude that it is vital that students can reconcile why mathematics is important for society and how that affects them in their personal lives. We should also make sure that we equip students with valuable skills, such as how to work effectively in a group, which can give them more agency in shaping their learning experience.

Stand-up for integration: stand-up comedy and its effects on social integration of expats and other migrants

Abstract This paper explores the effects that stand-up comedy performed by expats and other migrants can have on social integration of migrants. The study is situated in the Czech Republic where migrant population is growing fast and the necessity for exploring successful integration strategies increases. The study is designed as ethnographic research which relies on participant observations – attending and recording stand-up performances; semi-structured qualitative interviews with comedians; and informal interviews with audience members. The main findings identify three key aspects through which stand-up comedy can foster social integration of migrants: community-building and a nurturing a sense of belonging; acquiring cultural competencies of the host culture; and enabling inter-cultural understanding through cultural exchange.