What is the show but the audience:
Audience development, with chips.

What is the show but the audience? is series of audio interviews with theatre audiences who don’t normally see shows.

With the promise of a free ticket and free chips/pint/cup of tea, I invite people who don’t ‘do theatre’ to go to see a show with me to find out what they thought. Afterwards, they invite their friends to see show with me with a free ticket/chips/interview, then they invite their friends… This project hopes to treat new audiences like more than just useful data for venues to analyse, offering the public more authority to define what the theatre means to them and who it might be for.

Initially created for Manchester International Festival 2017 Creative50, this project inspired and created in response to the festival opening event What is the city but the people? a piece which presented people from Manchester on catwalk across Piccadilly Gardens, including people who are not often seen on a public platform.

Listen to the responses so far on: soundcloud. Contributors for MIF17: Ruby, Brian & Ben.

What is the show but the audience, is a project in development. It is available as part of an audience development plans for venues and festivals. Creative50 was delivered by MIF and supported by the Arts Council’s Ambition for Excellence programme and Bruntwood. Find out more about: Creative50