Kai Padberg, Research Area 2: "Travelling Matters"
Doctoral Research Project

"Extended Audiences: Audience performances and public in transition" expands upon concepts of audience in theatre studies and focuses on audience phenomena that have received little attention in research thus far. Within this project, the temporal, medial and spatial dimensions of audiences are to be considered in ways extending beyond the typical constructs by which performance spectatorship are investigated. Against this background, the public sphere will be re-examined in relation to ‘audience performances’. Further, global processes of technological and social change will be examined for how they shift the who, how, and where of ‘audience’. Beyond investigating audience configurations in particular performance contexts, this project will focus on wider frameworks through which audiences amass, including: follow-up discussions, theatre festivals and digital audience discourses in social media. Within the framework of the project, historical and contemporary case studies will be conducted in the European and global theatre and performance arts scene.