Cross-Institutional Collaboration through Audience Research

Abstract: Neighboring institutions with radically different access to resources circulate within segregated and siloed social worlds. Cross-institutional collaboration holds the potential to disrupt these silos, to redirect resources from resource-rich institutions to underfunded neighboring institutions, and to emphasize the value of lived experiences in the production of knowledge. The theatre can be a site for cross-institutional collaboration, but such projects are far from straightforward and require flexibility. This essay describes a collaboration between the theatre department of a resource-rich private university and an honors seminar at a neighboring community college, utilizing audience research as a site of cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional collaboration.