Cake, commuting, and conversation: Here’s what Canadian audiences value when they go to the theatre

Artist Perspectives

/By Signy Lynch , Kelsey Jacobson , Scott Mealey , Jenny Salisbury / Oct 18, 2024

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Theatre is dying, as usual. 

Okay, we’re being glib, but it’s no secret that for many arts organizations, the current outlook is grim. A report compiled by Queen’s University researchers earlier this year suggested that the pandemic has accelerated existing challenges, like rising costs. COVID-19 also has significantly realigned the philanthropic landscape and attendance patterns. For many theatre companies, the biggest worry is that some audiences simply aren’t going to come back. As we look into why, we’re discovering how much we still don’t know about the people who attend theatre. 

Who are we? We’re a team of researchers, called the Centre for Spectatorship and Audience Research (CSAR). We want to know how and why theatre is a part of peoples’ lives — and theatre creators do, too. 

This past spring, we invited a group of scholars, artists, and students to gather at the University of Toronto Mississauga to figure some of this out. Over the course of the day, artists and artistic directors detailed the extraordinary lengths and measures they have taken to connect with and learn about their audiences. And we researchers shared the insights we’ve gathered from talking to, surveying, and engaging with theatre audiences. 

What we discovered was a strong desire for hospitality and neighbourliness. From relationship-building to integrity, post-pandemic theatres are taking their role as host very seriously. 

Here are some of the questions being asked by Canadian theatre institutions — and some possible steps forward for the industry as a whole.

How do people get to the theatre? 

Frédéric Julien, from the Canadian Association for the Performing Arts/Association Canadienne des Organismes Artistiques (CAPACOA), offered this interesting provocation: How might something seemingly simple, like access to a subway stop, be driving audiences toward or away from cultural experiences? 

Mel Hague, artistic director of Factory Theatre, similarly shared how avoiding road closures and navigating public transit or parking has become a herculean task for their audiences. “By the time they’ve got to the theatre,” she shared, “I just want to give them a cake.” Anyone who has had to navigate the current construction chaos of downtown Toronto or faced TTC delays while racing to make a curtain time probably agrees they deserve a treat. 

We found ourselves wondering how other home matters — including children, roommates, care, and maintenance responsibilities — might be shaping audience decisions. As CSAR member Scott Mealey discovered, all investment of energy, including the demands of preparing to travel to and from a theatre, shape the decisions potential theatregoers make. 

What makes audiences feel welcome? 

Theatre Passe Muraille, we learned from artistic director Marjorie Chan, has given extended and successful attention to converting their century-old bakery building into a welcoming, accessible place for its diverse neighbours, through inclusive renovations and a holistic personalized approach to facilitating access. This includes a fund to support audience members’ transportation to the theatre, and an active listener program to help them process their experiences of and responses to the shows. 

Food and the power of hosting shared meals has been top of mind for b current performing arts. According to artistic director Marcel Stewart, they have discovered that this act of reciprocity and relationality creates a positive context for their theatre. CSAR member Jenny Salisbury reminds us that all theatre, whether professional, indie, or fringe, takes place inside of host communities. When audience members are treated as hosts, they feel empowered at the theatre. They encourage others to buy tickets; they write social media posts; they show newcomers where the bathrooms are. Through respect and encouragement, audience members shift from passive consumers to active members of arts communities.  

How are we curating personally meaningful experiences? 

For Waterloo, Ont.’s MT Space, this process started with their choice to facilitate radical access for audiences — from opening certain rehearsals to community members to translating entire scripts into Arabic in order to make theatre more accessible to local Syrian newcomers. 

Artistic director Pam Patel’s account of converting casual community members to major patrons through these strategies was a powerful reminder of how knowing one’s neighbours can cultivate new audiences. In her work on how audiences are “cast,” CSAR member Signy Lynch explains how carefully considering and responding to the actual diversity within audiences is vital because spectators want to feel valued specifically not generally.

What are audiences leaving with and what will bring them back?  

Theatre is a conversation, and the best hosts find ways of ensuring it doesn’t feel like a one-way street. 

Sarah Kitz, artistic director of Ottawa’s GCTC, devoted upwards of 25 hours listening to concerned audience members after a particularly challenging performance. After talking with Kitz, all said they would return to the theatre for another show. In this way, relationships were strengthened, not with apology or ticket refunds, but with conversation and respect. CSAR’s Kelsey Jacobson has found in studies of collective copresence that the opportunity to think through and discuss performances with others is a source of great pleasure for audiences, even if they didn’t necessarily enjoy the show they attended. 

In general, hospitality-based approaches help audiences feel valued as individuals and not just as walking wallets. Our collective asked, “What if theatre-makers were to genuinely see theatre-goers as neighbours, and build spaces that are theirs as much ours?”

Or, as Mr. Rogers might say: “Since we’re together, won’t you be my neighbour?”  

CSAR would like to thank: Marjorie Chan (Theatre Passe Muraille); Kathleen Gallagher (University of Toronto); Mel Hague (Factory Theatre); Frédéric Julien (CAPACOA); Sarah Kitz (GCTC); Kondwani Mwase (NAC); Pam Patel (MT Space); Marcel Stewart (b current); and Jessica Watkin (disability dramaturg) for a delicious event.

WRITTEN BY

Signy Lynch

Dr. Signy Lynch explores diversity amongst theatre audiences and how they are ‘cast’ by theatremakers, and her research also investigates contemporary diasporic, intercultural, and Black theatres in Canada and theatre criticism. She is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto (Mississauga and CDTPS).

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Kelsey Jacobson

Dr. Kelsey Jacobson studies how audiences perceive, value, and understand their experiences at performing arts events. She has written a book about spectatorship and realness called Real-ish: Audiences, Feeling, and the Production of Realness in Contemporary Performance. Kelsey is an assistant professor in the DAN School at Queen’s University.

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Scott Mealey

Dr. Scott Mealey explores how committed listening better explains key theatre audience experiences. This work has appeared in academic journals and arts reports. He is also a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto and is the associate director of the Canadian for Empirical Church Research (Wycliffe College).

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Jenny Salisbury

Dr. Jenny Salisbury is a theatre-maker and educator. She is co-artistic director with Tara Goldstein of Gailey Road Productions, “where theatre meets research and research meets theatre”. She is a sectional lecturer at the University of Toronto and her research focuses on community-engaged theatre creation and audiencing.

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