Growing the Hearts of Audiences: Community-Engaged Learning and Studies in Audience Development

Abstract: Diminishing audiences is a theme of recent industry news articles announcing pauses and closures of some of the country’s most prestigious regional theatres, often citing COVID-19 as the determining factor. While the pandemic has certainly brought audience decline to a head, decades of diminished arts education and the prioritizing of profit over community engagement have exacerbated the falling-off. What lessons can theatre departments and training programs take from this scenario? This article outlines a pedagogy of audience development embedded in early arts education and identifies six attributes for community-engaged learning. Audience development is clearly a priority for ensuring that our venues are full and current students have an industry to graduate into.