Changing the world, or, why I like talking with theatre audiences
This text is a somewhat tidied edit of a mostly scrappy keynote delivered at the launch event for the Routledge Companion to Audiences and the Performing Arts . My invitation had been to respond to the introductory texts, but each of those coaxed me into other chapters, and so every time I sat down to start writing, I became instead absorbed in reading more. The book is a mammoth compendium of essays from a multitude of perspectives in audience research: historical, philosophical, speculative, exploratory; interested in everything from the neuroscience of how people respond when watching a live performance to the nature of fandom and the political problem of globalising audiences. I finished collating my thoughts on the train to Leeds, where the event was taking place; after I read it out, someone from the audience said it was like listening to someone free associating, which was expressed as a compliment so that’s how I’m taking it. I didn’t have a title for this until I listened to