A provocative overview of the questions raised by theatrical encounters between performers and audiences, drawing on examples that have sought to generate active audience involvement from Brecht's epic theatre to The Blue Man Group. It argues for more audience-responsive approaches to what theatre does for those who witness, watch or participate.

What does theatre do for and to those who witness, watch, and participate in it?

Theatre& Audience provides a provocative overview of the questions raised by theatrical encounters between performers and audiences. Focusing on European and North American theatre and its audiences in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it explores belief in theatre's potential to influence, impact and transform. Illustrated by examples of performance which have sought to generate active audience involvement from Brecht's epic theatre to the Blue Man Group it seeks to unsettle any simple equation between audience participation and empowerment.

Foreword by Lois Weaver

Provides a concise overview of the issues raised by theatrical encounters between performers and audiencesPart of the successful and innovative Theatre And series

Autorentext

Lois Weaver, Helen Freshwater

Klappentext

What does theatre do for - and to - those who witness, watch, and participate in it?

Theatre& Audience provides a provocative overview of the questions raised by theatrical encounters between performers and audiences. Focusing on European and North American theatre and its audiences in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it explores belief in theatre's potential to influence, impact and transform. Illustrated by examples of performance which have sought to generate active audience involvement - from Brecht's epic theatre to the Blue Man Group - it seeks to unsettle any simple equation between audience participation and empowerment.

Foreword by Lois Weaver

Zusammenfassung
What does theatre do for and to those who witness, watch, and participate in it?

Inhalt

Series Editors' Preface.- Foreword; Lois Weaver.- Difficulties of Definition.- Models and Frames.- Suspicion, Frustration and Contempt.- Potent Orthodoxies.- Playing with the Audience.- Further Reading.- Index.