What does ‘value ’mean when we are thinking about watching a play? What is the quality and nature of our experience of subsidised theatre? At a time when all public spending is under threat, the British Theatre Consortium decided to investigate by asking audiences directly.

We distributed anonymous questionnaires to audiences for the Library Theatre Company’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children in the Quays Theatre at the Lowry, from 22 February – 9 March 2013. The questions were in three sets: before, straight after, and one week after attending a performance.

-     65 audience members returned full surveys: 40 women, 25 men.

• 11% of the respondents were in the 16 – 25 age bracket.

• 32% of the respondents were under 45, and 68% were over 45.

-    46% of the respondents hold postgraduate qualifications, and 35% either degrees    or professional qualifications.

We conducted further in-depth interviews with 14 volunteer audience members and theatre workers about their memories, knowledge and experience of the work of the Library Theatre Company, and analysed the results in our report.  

We ran creative workshops with the Library Theatre's Community Consultation Panel, audience member volunteers, Sixth Form Drama students at Parrs Wood High School and students from the Department of English at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU).  We also designed a website on which we invited members of the public to contribute and share memories of going to the Library Theatre, designed by Simon Woolham, Group Of and Julie Wilkinson.  

In addition to pursuing its central research questions, the project performed a role in support of the Library Theatre and its audiences, during the theatre's move from the basement of the Manchester Central Library to its new permanent and purpose-built theatre base at the Home Arts Centre.  

 The results of the project were presented in an exhibition of panels displayed at the Lowry Theatre and at Manchester Metropolitan University.  The exhibition was curated by Julie Wilkinson and Chris Bridgman of the British Theatre Consortium, with design by Johnny Clifford, using original drawings by Simon Woolham.  Special thanks to Anna Evans, John Davis, artist Sarbjit Kaur, Sophia Hatfield and Julie Wilkinson's English in Practice undergraduate class of 2013 at MMU.  

 

The project's methodology was adapted to structure the British Theatre Consortium's later longitudinal investigation into theatre spectatorship, in which we studied responses from audiences to a range of performances in different parts of the country, and over sustained periods of time.