Do audiences have a place in the NTW Community?
Is the NTW Community mainly made up of professionals working in the creative arts and theatre industry? Is it an industry network? But what about audience members?
Smiles
Kelly, Ade, Eva and Wei.
:-)
- Do audience members who don't work in the theatre industry but love to come, watch and experience theatre, do they have a place in the NTW Community?
- What could we do to encourage and attract audience members to join the NTW community? Or should we?
Smiles
Kelly, Ade, Eva and Wei.
:-)
Views: 325
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kelly Page on
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Angharad, Amelia, Becca, John, Kenon, Tim ...
Really interesting posts and John thanks for the context about NTW's vision with the online community.
As most things, this does all boil down to the use of language and what in fact we each 'think of' when we use certain terms ... the term 'audience' can mean so many things to differing people, dependent on context and their frame of reference - be it marketing to passive mass media audiences, interacting with digital audiences, the artist viewing audience, or more relevant to this discussion perhaps ... audiences that participate in theatre ... are they all one in the same - no, probably not. Is it just marketing speak, probably not, especially wherein a theatre audience denotes one who participates in a theatre production and/or show.
And yes, just because one might work in the performing arts, are they not too audience members? ... Of course they are if attending a production. Just as we academics write for academics, so too does the artist create for the creative ... like links with like ... or birds of a feather often flock together ... So, yes we are all audiences ... and yes there would be no NTW without audiences ... I'm not sure that's in dispute ...
But just as we often concern that you have to be a lawyer to read the legal contracts we often sign; or academics to read the papers they publish; and bankers to scan the share pages of the financial times ... is the online community a place for the 'non-seasoned theatre attendee' to blog and share their experiences about NTW shows and/or theatre ... esp. as these individuals often only go to 1 or 2 shows in any given year ... as Tim raised, do they want to be ...
In this, some great suggestions about channels and usability and some cool questions are being further raised:
"What are the ways in which many differing people can [and perhaps want to] share the experience of theatre online?" ...
"Do audiences want a place in the online community?" ...
"How can we increase awareness and relevance amongst theatre attendees (NB. I'm trying to stay away from the term audiences here :-)), what ever their profile ... of the digital spaces theatre communities have a presence in to encourage interactivity, feedback, comments etc?"
More food for thought ...
Smiles
Kelly
P.S.. I just got back from seeing NTW06, The Persians in the Breacon. A great show, that left me googling "The Persians" on my iphone in the car on the way home ... I found this a YouTube clip of the location at Sennybridge ... the real star of the show: both contemporary and tragic in it's raw scarcity ... :-))
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Permalink Reply by Stephen Donnelly on
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I can genuinely see the great potential of the NTW's online project.
Getting the active audiences, audiences that want to participate in theatre, the theatre maker and the Dr. of performance theory together in one communal place is a great idea which should excite us all. Getting people together who are in any way involved in the unique experience that theatre can offer to discuss and share their thoughts is an important and essential way of discovering how the art-form is being used and of finding out how it can be used more effectively in the future.
I think some of the perceived problems that underlay the 'Do audiences have a place in the NTW Community?' question are due to the wide spectrum of people the NTW community has managed to attract.
With the everyday use of networking sites like Facebook through to the interaction with we are offered by television shows the theatre goer has come to expect a similar, if not higher level of engagement with the build-up and process of theatre making. The theatre maker doesn't want to open up the process they've cultivated for a quarter century to the general public and is turned off by the idea of blogging every time someone says or does something funny in rehearsal, whilst the Dr. of performance theory will say that at any given time everyone is performing on one or more levels and that it all depends on how you look at it.
There is a division between the majority of audience members and people who study and create theatre in the same way there is a division between the majority of people who cook for their families at the end of a hard day and a Michelin Star Chef - time committed to learning, honing skills and understanding of a very particular subject. This does not make anyone more important than anyone else; we are all essential to Theatre. We are the only creature from which Theatre springs out of and we all can and should embrace it. It just means that some may have a more specialised language and use special terminology that can seem pretentious, whilst others may think it can all get a but arty-farty and just don't get the very important ideas the artists are desperately trying to share with 'their' audience.
All this is not completely insurmountable and this site, in my view, will go some way to make that gap seem smaller.
However it will take a little time and lots of cups of coffee, so don't just stand there, put the kettle on.
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Kettle is on and boiling Stephen! Now I just have to count how many coffee cups we are going to need ... Fab post! :-) ... really insightful perspective! :-)
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Permalink Reply by Angharad Lee on
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Here I go. Provoking again. Just a random question? And I would like to be shut up by someone, but how many people, not 'directly related to Theatre', you know those people who are not looking for jobs in this industry or reviewing this production, went to see The Persians? I did not go unfortunatley. Anyone know?
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Could find out by giving out a Questionnaire at each show, or taking a poll to get a rough estimate.
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This came from a friend of mine. She is a childminder, loves the theatre and big into her amateur dramatics etc etc....
"i have looked at it, i dont think its easy to understand, i imagined it to be a site where you could find out how to enrol with the national theatre; its set out quite different to other sites, and i felt that unless you now what your looking for it doesnt seem very easy to follow, maybe its because i prefer things set out in a simple way. lol"
She had never heard of NTW, so it was completley fresh to her. So coming back to - Do audiences want a place in the NTW Community?, seriously, I think this site is a head fuck for 'them'!!!!!
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Would it help if the NTW looked more like facebook?
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Angharad; If your friend had never heard of NTW before it wouldn't matter what the site looked like. If you didn't know what Facebook was for you'd find it confusing too. The more you use Facebook the more you get to grips with the way it's set out. I'm still finding out how to do things on Facebook and I've been a member for the last 3 years. I am only now learning how to use this site properly!!! It takes time and you need to be interested enough to take part and learn how to use it. There are tutorials on how to get started if your friend is interested;
http://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/page/getting-started-in-the
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I went to the Persians last Tuesday and a survey was handed out after the production, here is the online version: http://www.ntw-research.org.uk/
Questions 4, 6 and 9 could potentially address this question, although not specific for your question Angharad. Curious, why interested in this number? And why for just The Persians?
:-)
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"If your friend had never heard of NTW before it wouldn't matter what the site looked like" - I'm sorry but maybe I am just being thick or something to be totally confused by this comment!! REALLY??!! It doesn't matter?
So the answer to Kelly's initial question is 'NO' then????
And Kelly, firstly I am gutted because I would have liked to have seen this project and secondly still wondering if we are STILL preaching to the converted????
Agh! Am I the only person on here who thinks this site has become a networking site?
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Audiences do have a place on this site, Angharad. I think whether they know how to use the site or understand it is another issue all together.
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It's not that it doesn't matter, I think what Stephen's saying (correct if my interpretation is incorrect Stephen), that when new to a digital technology or platform (i.e., be it Ning or Facebook); or it's visual and navigational design (i.e., so NTW's specific online community), it can take a while to become familiar with it and this is also influenced by many things. Both how designers design it, what the platform (e.g., Ning) allows the organisation to do with it, and also what the user really sees or values in it.
This latter is one of the most important - it's utility! The 'inner felt need of it's value' a user/participant feels of the online community to their everyday (be it professional, personally motivated etc). For example:
- If people perceive the value is high, they will overcome the chaotic and complicated.
- However if the value is not that obvious, it doesn't matter how easy it is to use, unique (new) users/participants will 'click' off.
- However that said, sometimes complicated visual and navigation design does have a negative impact on a user/participant being able to evaluating it's value to 'self'.
So visual and navigation in Digital Design are important, but without feeling an inner value in what NTW is about or the online community ... it's not the most important driver of using online social networks ... irrespective of if it is Facebook, Myspace, Bebo or a bespoke presence like the NTW Online Community ...
This is also why it is important to really understand the inner value your community (what ever their profile) really value and want out of it ...
I'd ask your friend, what does she think she'd want out of being a member of an online community like this first? Different people, will value different things ... and some none at all!
:-)
P.S. wish I'd rephrased my opening questions differently now :-) ...
P.P.S. Have you purchased your ticket to the Love Steals Us from Loneliness? I missed out on two of the first couple of shows too as they sold out so quickly! Which is great! But mean's I'm thinking ahead now ... :-)
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