Investigating the Audience

Before we even begin to evaluate who attended the theatre at any one given moment in history, we must first recognise the fact that the individual attends a performance with certain expectations, values and prejudices that have already been determined. Also, we must acknowledge the fact that a diverse collection of people constitutes an audience, so in fact we are analysing the history of audiences.

Gurr, A. Playgoing in Shakespeare’s London

Theatre historians regard Andrew Gurr’s book, Playgoing in Shakespeare’s London as an authority of the Shakespearean period, “an indispensable quarry for information on theatres ad audiences” . John F. Andrews also endorses Gurr as one of the world’s leading historians, recognising him as “one of our most lucid and reliable interpreters of what it was like to attend a play in the age of Shakespeare.”

Gurr’s article addresses the value and significance of the audience in performances of the period. He examines the effect of historical change on the change in the physical nature of the auditorium, audience tastes and the social composition of the playgoers. He attempts to patch together evidence from the physical conditions of performances, demograp

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” If the long term goal is once again to generalise then aren’t we negating the diversity of the audience response and returning back to the same shortcomings of Gurr’s article?

Carlson, M. Whereas David Wiles draws upon Foucault and Le Febre to understand how Athenian audiences experienced to the public space of the Theatre of Dionysus. Some researchers have chosen an empirical approach and limited their research to social make-up of audiences, their behaviour at the playhouse and changes in spectator tastes over time but did not look at reactions to plays or genres, ethnic mix or gender minorities. In doing so, the director and/or dramaturg would include interpretative essays and sketches that would seek to condition audience response and suggest a preferred interpretative strategy in reading the play. Clearly, Gurr’s book omits certain truths about audiences of the period due to his minimal analysis and questioning of tastes and attitudes of audiences of the period. For example Susan Bennett’s Theatre Audiences examines the way in which for one performance there may in fact be a “multiple, diverse, yet simultaneous experiences of reception. Theatre Audiences and the Reading of Performance

Carlson further questions and evaluates the role of the audience as a passive group. Following on from Eco’s theories of the model reader was Marco de Marinis’ theory of the Model Spectator, which is embodied in modern theatre through the director. So, is there any value in trying to find evidence about the audience through historiography?

Gurr’s article also raises the fundamental ideological debate raised by playwrights and theatre historians of the role of the audience as either ‘spectator’ or ‘audience’.

On the other hand, Umberto Eco approaches the theory of reader-response through the notion of semiotics and the Model Reader. Overall, what is the purpose in studying any historical account of theatre audiences when most historians only seek to generalise and ironically understand more? Does anyone really care?

. The onset of the proscenium stage has certainly made the audience passive in a physical way. According to poets of the period, in particular Jonson believed that there were two kinds of playgoers divided according to the priority of the ear or the eye. For example, if the public enjoyed an actor portraying a certain persona they would expect that the persona would be repeated by the same actor but in different plays.

Stanley Fish who focussed upon “changing interpretations, but more particularly on the social dynamics by which varying interpretations are advanced” rather than relying on channelled interpretations of the text established a third theory of reader response.

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