intrinsicimpact.org

City Lights Theatre…

Admin — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:50:38 +0000

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…

Admin — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:49:46 +0000

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.

Thus, every level of Woolly Mammoth’s work, from ticket discounts to fundraising letters, reinforces this message of analysis instead of evaluation. We hope to empower audiences to trust their own responses to complex work, neutralizing the impact of mainstream critics who may dismiss a play as too risky or avant-garde to be a “sure thing.” If we enable feedback like “good” or “bad,” the dialogue around even the most popular work will have limited depth. However, if we give audiences the tools and confidence to investigate why a given play gets under their skin, any response—even a negative one—is a valid part of our partnership.

We make sure to let audiences know that our partnership with them has a great impact on our artistic work. Their ability to perceive and articulate meaning – whether by laughing, crying, gasping, applauding, or asking a question in a post-show discussion – allows artists to test and refine their craft. Very often our artists actively use the audience to help determine “whether the story we’re telling is the story we think we’re telling.”

Miriam Weisfeld, Director of Artistic Development
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Washington, DC

Berkeley Rep…

Admin — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:48:45 +0000

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.

La Crosse Community Theatre

Admin — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:47:38 +0000

The theatre audience is comprised of volunteers, individuals who made a choice to come to the theatre. This means we have to understand what they want and what they expect when experiencing art. I believe we can persuade some members of the audience to expand their risk taking and we can educate some members of the audience to understand what they are experiencing. But, we cannot make them do something they don’t want to do. More importantly, we don’t always understand what they want to do (to be fair they don’t always understand what they want either). In addition, audiences are not a single entity; rather the audience is comprised of individuals. We need to understand the individual. Anything we can do to facilitate that understanding is valuable and necessary to long-term success.

David Kilpatrick, Executive Director
La Crosse Community Theatre
La Crosse, Wisconsin

Arden Theatre Company

Admin — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:46:26 +0000

Audience feedback is highly valued at the Arden and we believe that it can and should co-exist with artistic vision. The Arden’s season selection is based on the stories we are most passionate about bringing to life on our stages, but we recognize that those decisions are subjective. We would like our work to have real impact and for each production to find its own audience. As such, we have to acknowledge that given the range of work we produce, it is essential that we understand how our audience connects to our work, which assists in our focusing and forming programmatic and artistic decisions. As is true of any relationship, a theatre’s relationship with its audience is one that evolves and must be reciprocal. We can attempt to predict the audience’s tastes but have often been surprised by shows that have unexpectedly become successful or vice versa.

Because the creation of a play is about process—we do not know what a play will become when we select it—we rely on our passions and the passions of the artists involved to bring our productions to life on the stage. We then have to let the audience have a relationship with the work. If we fail to connect our audiences to our work, we view that as cause for great concern.

Terrence J. Nolen, Producing Artistic Director
Arden Theatre Company
Philadelphia, PA