Curators on Audiences

Curators and Audiences – Notes

A chapter in discussion with international theatre and performance producers.

Annemie Vanackere – Programme director of the Rotterdamse Schouwburg in the Netherlands.

Christine Peters - from Frankfurt, preparing the Theater de Welt Festival in Stuttgart.

Mark Ball – Director of Fierce! Festival in Birmingham.

Sven Age Birkeland – Director of the Bergen International Theatre in Norway.

Chair: Thomas Frank – Sophiensaele in Berlin.

The first question discussed was ‘Are the audience under estimated and generally curious?’ stated by Heiner Goebbels.

Thomas Frank states that the audience is asked a lot of for instance, they are asked to be open and curious to the production and asked to pay to witness the production, Sven Age Birkeland disagrees he believes the audience isn’t curious enough, he has researched main stream Contemporary galleries, who don’t use just the ‘Art’ to pull the audience in, they use the idea of the café and the entrance fee is free.

I want to disagree with Sven Age Birkeland it isn’t enough to say that the audience isn’t curious enough, art for art’s sake is not what many people are interested in, and they may not have been to an art gallery for years, probably not since school. So often curiosity is what tempts the audience in, especially in today’s climate where there huge financial constraints on the individuals that make up the audience.

Mark Ball talks about how ‘Fierce!’ used to be called ‘Queerfest’ which commented on queer culture, this was researched when the numbers of the audience that attended were not great. Within this investigation it was discovered that straight audiences were not attending because of the ‘queer’ tone and guy audiences were put off because the tone of the work wasn’t touching the audience. Therefore the name was changed to ‘Fierce!’ they continued to present challenging and innovative work but broadened that concept, in doing this numbers have doubled, it has become a social event.

Ball states that if you just present the work as work without thinking about the value of the audience then it is hard to grow audiences.

What Ball is stating is absolutely right in my opinion, attempting to understand your audience and attempting to expand on the type of audience by researching and acknowledging the different social, political, even financial aspect of the potential audience and attempting make the work speak to talk to more by expanding rather in than remaining insular and only using one vision the audience will deteriorate rather than expand.

Does an audience appreciate it to get an insight how art is developed and produced? This question was directed to Christine Peters, who was quite critical of the audience stating issues such as:

The audience to not like to see things twice.

Not liking different languages.

Concentration problems.

Doesn’t read the programme, text properly.

Ask stupid questions.

Doesn’t like to see unknown artists.

The audience hates interactive art, however once experienced excited from the performance.

I found the attitude of Christine Peters very arrogant, and there was no attempt to acknowledge the difference facets that make up an audience, in my opinion she is examining the audience as a pack of animals, not capable to intellectualise to her standard, and the poem? ….

Mark Ball continues to talk about being inventive and not assuming that your audience are going to venture into to particular spaces that you often have to look out of the box and develop new relationships with promoters in different venues. He continues that some performances is about establishing relationships between the audience and the artist, in an evangelical way – Franko B

He continues to state that it is about education placing the artist work in context. The audience wants to consume an experience, so it’s about offering something tantalising.

Conclusion

          In my opinion this chapter opens up the debate between how international theatre and performance producers view the audience and how to draw the audience into going to see performances. Furthermore what constitutes an audience and then relating this back to the art and its effect on the audience.

          At the end of the day without the audience the art will be undiscovered and not appreciated; most people who go to see performances are curious to discover something new and are interested in this particular area, or particular members of the audience do need to drawn in especially if they have to pay to see a performance and so I do disagree with some of the comments made by Sven Age Birkeland who makes that statement that the audience are not curious enough, that was an obscure comment to make especially as this chapter is in discussion in front of audience, because curiosity would be a key point for people to attend this discussion.

          I found the comments by Mark Ball mirror my opinions regarding the audience, he has taken time and effort to research and in doing this has broadened the audience, expanded numbers that witness the performances, by expanding on the original format of what use to be ‘Queerfest’ into a cohesive festival ‘Fierce!’ that unites the audience from different cultures together, and in turn unites the audience with the artists, this in turn develops and deepens that relationship.

          When Thomas Frank set the question ‘Does an audience appreciate it to get an insight how art is developed and produced?’ This question was directed to Christine Peters, who was quite critical of the audience as seen from my comments made regarding her reply, I really do struggle with her opinions and her objectives within the realm of discussion, especially in front of an audience participated debate. I appreciate that everyone is entitled to have an opinion, however her comments seemed overtly aggressive and out of place. Because at the end of the day very few people would have an understanding of how art is developed and produced, and if somebody attempting to give an insight into how art is developed and produced reflected that attitude, personally I would switch off! Not everybody is academic, the fact that someone goes to see a production in the first place is a starting point, and often the programme isn’t read, and depending on the performance maybe concentration is lost, but often a discussion develops once the performance has finished.

However I do see her point of view after watching Jamie Oliver’s ‘Dream School’ on Channel 4, one particular episode did show a group of teenagers go to see a performance of ‘Shakespeare’ and they were unruly and did ruin the performance for other members of the audience. However the way she voiced her opinions did cause me to almost disregard her opinions.

Once again referring to the comments made by Mark Ball the importance of the audience creates the need to build and create new relationships and expanding on these relationships. He continues to state that it is about education, placing the artist work in context. The audience wants to consume an experience, so it’s about offering something tantalising, that has a two way reaction between the audience and the artist.