An audience made entirely of green leafy plants and an audience experience completely mediated through a chat feature are two of the many examples of innovative audience involvement and participation in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our research considers audience engagement and reimagines what liveness can mean for an audience on the cyber-stage.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Audience Interaction
The interactive work of Philip Santos Schaffer, playwright of Baby Jessica’s Well-Made Play, balances the caretaking of an audience while actively engaging them in intimate participation. Santos Schaffer’s advice is essential for virtual productions that aim for a sense of live communion between audience and performer.
Caught on Camera: Simulated Audiences – for a Price
Looking at the re-imagined industry of online streaming professional sports which is selling the opportunity for audiences’ 2D faces to “sit” in prime stadium seats, ISDP finds parallels with the theatre tradition of capitalizing on audiences’ desires to be seen as much to see. We imagine when virtual theatre, which has mostly performed for free or low-cost tickets, will begin selling hierarchical seating arrangements.
On a New Track: Simulating the Peachtree Road Race
While the past few months have seen the realm of sports introduce soundscapes of canned audience reactions to live games, the Peachtree Road Race now introduces soundscapes of a massive road race for solo runners.
Neuroscience Sheds Light on Audio THEATRE’S Ability for Audience Engagement
A recent paper in Nature, titled “Natural Speech Reveals the Semantic Maps that Tile Human Cerebral Cortex,” explains how, neurologically and psychologically, the medium of audio theatre inherently engages its listeners.
A Leafy-Green Audience in Barcelona
Human and plant listeners came together for a June 22 concert with the Barcelona Opera. While human listeners were allowed to listen to the livestream, plants were put into the audience and filled 2,292 seats at The Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
Ghost games and a Simulated Audience
While sports are returning and are broadcasted, fans are unable to attend, which leads to quiet stadiums all over the world. However, one does not hear the quiet of those stadiums if you tune into a sports game, whether it be Hungarian soccer, South Korean baseball, or Australian rugby.