Contribution to Book
The Stony Silence: Negotiating Empathy and Audience Expectations in Solo Autoethnographic Performance in Audience Research
Impacting Theatre Audiences: Methods for Studying Change
(2022)
Abstract
Solo autoethnographic performance can be a valuable pathway for how theatre audiences see and listen with performers who are often attempting to challenge the audiences' ways of experiencing grief and loss. Yet, the power of dark emotions can be overwhelming for those audience members who are neither able nor willing to explore these emotions during the performance. In this chapter, I review the pitfalls encountered conducting audience research in solo autoethnographic performance piece, Blunt Force Trauma.
Keywords
- Solo performance,
- autoethnography,
- audience research,
- dark emotions,
- empathy.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2022
Editor
Matt Omasta and Dani Snyder-Young
Publisher
Routledge
Publisher Statement
This edited collection explores methods for conducting critical empirical research examining the potential impacts of theatrical events on audience members.
Dani Snyder-Young and Matt Omasta present an overview of the burgeoning subfield of audience studies in theatre and performance studies, followed by an introduction to the wide range of ways scholars can study the experiences of spectators. Consisting of chapter-length case studies, the book addresses methodologies for examining spectatorship, including qualitative, quantitative, historical/historiographic, arts-based, participatory, and mixed methods approaches.
This volume will be of great interest to theatre and performance studies scholars as well as industry professionals working in marketing, audience development, and community engagement.
Citation Information
Michelle Cowin Gibbs. "The Stony Silence: Negotiating Empathy and Audience Expectations in Solo Autoethnographic Performance in Audience Research" Impacting Theatre Audiences: Methods for Studying Change (2022) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/michelle-gibbs/6/