Category: AUDIENCE

The Night Broadway’s ‘Slave Play’ Was Performed For An All-Black Audience

The producers of Jeremy O. Harris’s daring drama set aside all 804 seats on Sept. 18 for Black theatregoers, and they marketed the event almost entirely through direct outreach. Harris was thrilled by that night’s atmosphere: “People got out of their seats to go to the bathroom when they needed, people spoke, people laughed loudly, talked back, people (mon dieu!) texted with their ringers off and screens turned low. And the whole room felt free.” – American Theatre

Samsung Builds A Vertical Stage, Just So We Can Record The Performance On Our Smartphones

As part of the grand opening of its big new store in central London, Samsung put up a three-story, 30-foot stage and presented a rock concert on it. Why? “Research … found 94% of smartphone users are now engaging with their devices vertically, and 79% find vertical videos the most interesting.” – Fast Company

Theatre Ticket Prices Just Go Higher And Higher. Time Was, Folks Rioted Over That.

Back in 1809, the newly renovated Theatre at Covent Garden in London raised the cost of the cheapest tickets by half a shilling, and people fought in the streets over this for three months. (Twenty people died.) In 2019, prices have, in some cases, more than doubled in the past ten years as most people’s pay has remained stagnant — and folks do little more than grouse or stop going. Alice Saville argues that high prices warp audience expectations and, ultimately, the art itself. – Exeunt Magazine

It’s Only 2019, But The Guardian Has Made A List Of The 100 Best Books Of The 21st Century

Agree, disagree, tick off the ones you’ve read on a list … whatever, here they all are, from nonfiction to poetry to doorstop novels to graphic novel memoirs to everything else that won the approval of the British newspaper’s reviewers. (We hesitate to imagine the epic meetings and battles that took place to decide on number one.) – The Guardian (UK)

Patreon Wants To Fund The Creative Class. But Is It Just Propping Up A Bad System?

The service may very well allow artists to become less beholden to the unpredictable algorithms, turbulent monetization policies, and stingy revenue-sharing of behemoth distribution platforms like YouTube. But in the absence of a viable alternative to those platforms, Patreon winds up effectively subsidizing that very unpredictability, turbulence, and stinginess. – Wired

Why Can’t Most Theatre Performances Be ‘Relaxed’ Performances?

Events labeled “relaxed performances” are ones where it’s okay for the audience to move around, make noise, leave and return to the auditorium if you need to, etc.; there’s usually one per run of a show (if that) and they’re aimed at neuro-atypical people, children, and so on. Maddy Costa argues for “the possibility of all theatre performances being relaxed, with occasional ‘uptight’ performances being programmed to accommodate those who prefer to experience live theatre in a strictly controlled and rarefied atmosphere.” – Exeunt

Making Dance Accessible To Blind And Partially Sighted Audiences

“Our ears take in the score, the artists’ breathing patterns, fellow audience members’ reactions, and the physical percussion made by the dancers’ footfalls and partnering. All of this information is available to audience members with limited to no vision, and when it comes to providing them with the rest, there are multiple approaches being refined by experts in the field generally referred to as ‘audience accessibility.'” – Dance Magazine