IntrinsicImpact's blog

City Lights Theatre... 

City Lights is, always has been, and will remain committed not only to our own artistic endeavors but to defining and furthering the role of theatre – and of all non-profit arts – in the community, on the local scale and beyond.  Only by participating in impact assessment studies can we honestly say that we have our finger on the pulse of what drives all the arts – our patrons.  This is not just “lip service” to what many consider a “necessary evil”; it is a basic tenet in which I believe strongly, and which rests at the heart of much of my work as the Executive Artistic Director of City Lights Theater Company.  Audiences are more than paying customers; they represent the world at large that we all wish to impact through our work.

Lisa Mallette, Executive Artistic Director
City Lights Theater Company
San Jose, California

Woolly Mammoth... 

We have come to consider audience impact on three major artistic levels:

1)    How can we form the ideal partnership between audience and play?
2)    How can audience response strengthen our artistic work?
3)    How can we embolden audiences to grapple with increasingly challenging work?

Since we regard the audience as a vital partner in the activation of new work, we consistently encourage them to respond with analytical—instead of evaluative—language. Observations that illuminate the work (“the ending made me think about X, but I don’t know why”) instead of dismiss it (“the ending was confusing”) deepen the partnership between artist and audience.

Berkeley Rep... 

Berkeley Rep is already deeply invested in open-minded research. The Theatre has both the perspective and the tools to make an essential contribution to this study. Berkeley Rep is one of the largest theatres in the country producing mostly new shows, for unique audiences expecting work that is ambitious, intelligent, relevant, and adventurous.

Audience impact / feedback data has a substantial role in determining the choices the Theatre makes – artistically and otherwise – even as we hold firmly to the ideal that our artistic choices must made by artists, not by committees or audiences. For example, feedback has helped us gauge audience comfort with various types of non-traditional (non-linear, non-narrative) theatrical forms; While data never determines artistic programming, it does inform the process by which the Theatre’s artistic leadership selects programming.