1.0 Introduction
1.1 General Introduction
It has, perhaps, not been realized that theatre audience anywhere in the world constitute a dominant force in theatre hierarchy. A theatrical performance becomes “lifeless” without the breath of the audience members owing to their role of involvement. Brecht understood this and so sought for an alternative mode of dramaturgy that “instructs questions, provokes redefinitions that arouse new thought, and is, therefore, truly agitational” (54)
Indeed, it is of the nature of theatre, during its performances, to jolt its audience from its anaesthesia and prepare them for action. Adedeji rates it thus:
The medium of theatre engages a person in a positive discovery and expression of itself… whatever feeling, meaning and spirit that is created in theatre, is usually shared with the audience members who will have an opportunity to experience it (20).
Towards achieving this feat, this study considers two issues. The first is what constitute theatre audiences and what it is to build audiences; and the second, how far this could go in keeping them in shift formal sense as audiences in view of the fact that theatre requires audiences all the time vis-a-vis the administration of audiences who have come to theatre to engage with new ideas while being entertained.
Being assumed that Nigerian educational theatres are capable of building audiences, however, keeping it becomes a different matter. On the other hand, the fall in theatre audiences perhaps because theatre cannot keep or sustain it explains the long journey of lesser patronage of theatrical performances. In this connection, Nwamuo's assertion that theatre is a demonstration (imitation) of any action by anyone as a group of people at a particular place and moment in time, with or without makeup, costumes rehearsals or improvisation before an audience gathered for interest to share and celebrate(40).
by its content, scope and methodologies realizes that the audience is the better half of theatre enterprise, seeks to woo them to come “savour” the performance, know how to retain them for the future via making them comfortable, cater for their needs and ensure their safety while on the premises.
Hence, the idea of planning, organizing, directing and controlling the audience members and their interaction in order to attain the predetermined objectives of having a full house, guaranteeing satisfaction and maximum profit is influenced by engineering the audience members in a patterned way as orchestrated by the management of theatre. This, Nwamuo considers as; the skillful instruction, the contriving and devising of a means of getting intended audience to see what they have to see, in an organized, comfortably safe and pleasurable environment so they can continue to patronize the organization's programmes (10).
Audience engineering practice in the modern day educational theatre is highly competitive and advanced in nature. It comes with it, the “art” and “science” woven around different techniques to tackle its compelling, demanding and gruesome nature.
To this end, this study undertakes a comparative study of the University of Calabar Chinua Achebe Theatre and the University of Uyo Little Play House audience engineering approaches during their production seasons.
1.1 Statement Of The Problem
Investigation revealed that without good and effective approaches in managing the audience that “invade” theatre especially, in the Nigerian Universities, there is every tendency that theatre will one day experience a “zero turn-out”. This is especially true when one considers the fact that patronage for live performances, no matter how elaborate the performance, have not been encouraging taking cognizance of other elements of entertainment prevalent in the society.
This forestalls the assumption that theatre though capable of building audiences; lacks the “grace” to keep and maintain it hence, the fall in theatre audience experienced by theatre organization.
It is however, the believe of this researcher that theatre audiences especially that of educational theatres, can be improved upon if effective audience engineering strategies are adopted.
1.2 Justification Of The Study
Since audience engineering incorporates the scientific and skillful designing, organizing and implementing of an action plan aimed at winning large audiences to a theatrical event using the art and science of human management, the nature of the study aims to analyze through a comparative study, the approaches of engineering the audience members that visit the University of Uyo Little Play House and its Calabar counterpart, The Chinua Achebe Arts Theatre, with emphasis centered on how they “work”. This work therefore proposes that other theatres in Nigeria (educational or commercial) should adopt the “Idea” of audiences engineering used by these theatres as presented by this work.
1.3 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Comparative Analysis of Audience Engineering in the Universities of Uyo and Calabar.
1.4 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint:
time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies:
Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this research work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Financial Constraint:
Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
- Lack of Initial Cooperation from Respondents:
A particular limitation of this work came as a result of the respondent refusal to offer their cooperation at the initial time they were contacted. This contributed in making the success of this research study difficult.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to comparatively analyze the audience engineering in the Universities of Uyo and Calabar. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
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