Abstract
"A collection of thoughtful and provocative reflections on how theatre practitioners think about and engage with audiences, as well as define and explore sites for performance. Through shared experience and ritual, live performance functions as a catalytic medium for progress and evolution. In the hands of artists and audience, the stage is set for the re-makings of commonwealth, or necessary revolution. Caridad Svich received a 2012 OBIE Award for Lifetime Achievement in the theater, a 2012 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award for GUAPA, and the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize for her play The House of the Spirits, based on the Isabel Allende novel"-- Provided by publisher.
Foreword: Audience revolutions / Alison Carey and Bill Rauch -- Introduction: Dispatches from the field / Caridad Svich -- Evolution and resistance. Evolution > Revolution? / Carlton Turner -- Community/Resistance: reflections on discourse and community / Diana Damian Martin -- The lies we tell about audience engagement / Melissa Hillman -- It takes a village to raise a theatre / Jules Odendahl-James -- Activating audience: theatre of radical inclusion / Applied Mechanics -- Back to the future / Deborah Brevoort -- Inside out / Corey Madden -- Teaching students to create for contemporary audiences / Jacqueline Goldfinger -- Ancient technologies for modern times / Jeff Janisheski -- Building bridges / Dave White -- let's get punk rock about this / Sylvan Oswald -- Only for "black" shows: black audiences on standby / Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway -- For love of the ceremony: thoughts on audiences and new-play festivals / Nathan Alan Davis -- Ask your artists / Larissa FastHorse -- Guest in house as God in house: hospitality as principle and practice for Albuquerque's Tricklock Company / Brian Eugenio Herrera interviews Juli Hendren and Elsa Menéndez -- Seeing. I'll be your one-way mirror: crossing the fourth wall / Clay McLeod Chapman -- Making eye contact with millennials: the ephemeral and the visceral / Justin Maxwell -- Setting the table / Lenora Champagne -- Challenging "excellence" in American theatre / Richard Montoya -- The dreams we make / Madeline Sayet -- When your play is set in a yarn-bombed hardware store / Callie Kimball -- Relaxed performances, "crip time," and access for all / J.J. El-Far -- Where art is equal / Dipika Guha -- Place and play. Narrative of place / Thomas Riccio -- A rumination on audience development and a short series of unwieldy questions / Kevin Lawler -- Playing in cities / Andy Field -- Imagining audiences / Kira Obolensky -- The spectator: coauthor of my shows / Ana Margineanu -- Crafting a participatory performance space / Deborah Yarchun -- Pillsbury House + Theatre / Michael Hoyt -- Stories 'round the campfire / Amparo Garcia-Crow -- MILTON: a performance and community-engagement experiment / Katie Pearl, Lisa D'Amour, and Ashley Sparks -- New opportunities for surprise / Steve Moore -- Theatre and the Net: projects and possibilities / Brian Bell -- Space for theatre / Jake Witlen -- Being. The act of recognition / Barney Norris -- We are not alone / Adrianne Krstansky -- Art is people / Roberto G. Varea -- The volt (of resistance) / Jay Ruby -- What remains? / Tanuja Amarasuriya -- Please please please let me get what I want (even if) you can't always get what you want (or, how the Smiths and the Rolling Stones can teach us a thing or two about theatre) / Caridad Svich -- The reminder / Itamar Moses.