Talking about theatre: Audience development through dialogue

Taking as its starting point the Nordic cultural policy debates surrounding audience development, which concentrate either on reaching out to new target groups or on artistic quality, this article suggests that the focus on the audience’s experience of theatre performances has thus far been underdeveloped. Through qualitative audience investigations, this article shows how talking about theatre offers a method by which to explore theatre experiences from an audience perspective, and thus provides invaluable knowledge for theatres and cultural politicians in search of larger and broader audiences. The analysis discusses audience experience with regard to the sensory, the artistic and the symbolic level of two specific Swedish-Danish performances, thereby demonstrating how this approach offers a useful tool for theatrical institutions engaged in audience development.