Locating the Audience

'Kirsty Sedgman gives an example of how her findings were used by NTW…This isn’t pandering; it is about helping people feel a theatre is for them, a sense of ownership that is particularly crucial for a new national theatre project.'

-- Holly Williams, The Times Literary Supplement

'Sedgman’s first monograph is an exceptionally valuable piece of work. It represents a major contribution to our understanding of how audiences for contemporary theatre and performance evaluate the work they experience through detailed and insightful analysis of audience responses to two productions from National Theatre Wales’ first season: For Mountain, Sea & Sand (June/July 2010) and The Persians (August 2010).'

-- Helen Freshwater, Participations

'The thrust of her argument is that ‘different kinds of knowledge can be produced by accessing actual audience talk’ (10 [original emphasis]). Perhaps the most exciting part of the book, consequently, is the empirical data it presents and the analysis of records of responses gathered through interviews at From Mountain, Sand & Sea (directed by Marc Rees in Barmouth, Wales) and Te Persians (directed by Mike Pearson in the Brecon Beacon Mountains, Wales). More than bounded by the located nature of the performances studied and their Welsh geography, Locating the Audience seeks to open up wider questions about perceptions of participation, of place in performance and of who gets to speak of cultural value, on what terms, and with what authority or confidence.'

-- Evelyn O'Malley, Studies in Theatre and Perform