The Value of Amateur, Subsidised and Commercial Theatre for Tyneside's Audiences

This project aims draw a complete and systematic picture of the theatrical life of the city of Newcastle and the surrounding Tyneside region from the perspectives of the audience members who experience it. It will aim to encompass every piece of theatre that takes place in the area during the six-month period of study-professional, amateur and commercial. The project will collect data on who is attending which sort of theatre, what motivates spectators to attend, what experiences they have while there, and in what ways these experiences and values are different for amateur, commercial and subsidized theatre. The project uses a tested combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and social media analysis to address these questions.

While a number of theatre scholars have written about extraordinary performances and audience experiences, it is far more challenging to collect complete data on the more typical examples of theatergoing which, while not traditionally attracting as much scholarly interest, are the daily bread keeping the theatre afloat as an art form and an industry.

By including a wide variety of theatrical forms and focusing on audience's experiences, this project will help contribute to a much more nuanced and useful understanding of the role that theatre can play in contemporary British society. The findings will be useful to theatre makers who wish to better serve their audiences, but they will also assist in advocacy for increased financial support for the arts and, in particular, to show how the function of subsided, professional theatre is not one that can be replaced by its amateur or commercial counterparts . The project will work with the Empty Space, a key collaborative hub in Newcastle, and former Arts Council England North East executive director Mark Robinson of the think tank Mission Models Money to ensure that the results of our investigation are made available in an accessible, clear and useful way to the Tyneside theatre community, policymakers and the general public.

This project draws its methods from the Project on European Theatre Systems (STEP), a group of theatre sociologists from seven European countries. STEP has developed methods and metrics to collect this data on theatre and audience experience, and has refined and tested them in a number of smaller European cities. Thus far, comprehensive data has been gathered on Groningen, the Netherlands; Aarhus, Denmark; Berne, Switzerland; Maribor, Slovenia; Tartu, Estonia; and Debrecen, Hungary. Both the Principal Investigator and the lead Research Assistant have experience working with STEP and its methods, which are based primarily on the work of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and Dutch theatre scholar Hans van Maanen. STEP has been devising, testing, and refining its theory and methods since 2005. Common techniques and measures will facilitate comparisons both between different sorts of theatre within Tyneside, and between Tyneside and its continental cousins. Such a comparison will clarify what is distinctive about British theatre culture-not just in terms of its aesthetics, but in terms of the function it serves for its audience and the larger society around it.

This research aims to articulate the values theatre holds for its audiences and the functions it serves for contemporary society. While these are academic concerns, they hold a clear practical relevance. Theatre is one of the most subsidy-dependent art forms, and that subsidy is under constant threat-particularly in Newcastle, where the local council has recently threatened to cut off all arts funding as a measure of austerity. While the purpose of this project is not to advocate, it is a reasonable expectation that it will develop more nuanced, accurate and compelling arguments for continued support for theatre and the arts in general which arts advocates may find useful. Against the argument that commercial theatre is sufficient, or that theatre can function adequately as a solely amateur activity, this project will look to offer evidence that, in fact, the subsidized professional theatre creates a different sort of audience experience that cannot be replicated in an amateur or commercial setting.

Robust arts advocacy requires the ability to speak precisely and unflinchingly about what the arts do for their audiences, and how different sorts of arts serve different functions. Research like this has the potential to lead to a more useful discussion of the reasons for supporting the arts, rather than simply a defense of support that is already in place. The data collected here is focused on the particular experiences of local audiences; this specificity will help make the conversation between researchers and the public about this data easier, more concrete, and more useful.

But this case is not just a financial or political one. Many theatre artists and producers have a deep desire to know their audiences, and the expectations they bring with them, better. They would find it useful to have a clearer, more up-to-date understanding of the values that their audiences hope to take from the theatre and what experiences most clearly articulate them. In the long run, this research and the discussion it generates may also suggest ways for artists to make theatre that responds more directly to the desires and goals of their audience, whether by addressing or challenging them.

To make the impact of this work clearer and more useful for the Tyneside theatre community-as well as the Tyneside public generally-a pair of project partners with a great deal of experience studying the role of the arts in British society and building collaborations to develop it are involved. The first is the Empty Space (http://www.theemptyspace.org.uk/), a Newcastle-based collaborative hub for theatre, dance and the performing arts. They will host the research and help guide it with their strong relationships to the local theatre community and their understanding of its workings. The project will be more effective and relevant if it makes use of an existing network, which is what the Empty Space can provide. Second is the arts think tank Mission Models Money (MMM; www.missionmodelsmoney.org.uk), and one of its key associates, Mark Robinson, former Executive Director of Arts Council England, North East. Recognising that academic language is often difficult and off-putting to artists, policymakers, and other members of the public, the project will use Mr Robinson and MMM's expertise to help write a final public-facing report which is clear, accessible, and visually engaging, and that addresses issues of concern to Tyneside theatre artists, policy makers, and community members. The report will be made widely available including via the local councils' and MMM's own websites, and will be distributed to the project's contacts. The Empty Space will also facilitate a public 'open space' discussion event for the report's launch. This outreach will help ensure that the report begins a productive and data-grounded discussion on the audience experience of amateur, subsidized and commercial theatre in Tyneside, and its role in wider society.