Envisaged, Invited and Actual Audiences: A New Model to Approach Audience Research in Australian Community-Engaged Performance Projects

This study investigates different approaches to theatre audience studies to develop a new practical model for examining the embedded and intrinsic audiences in community-engaged performance projects with social orientations. The practical model is empirically tested in two Australian case studies, and augmented and enhanced through its application in three key audience categories: Envisaged Audience, Invited Audience and Actual Audience. This study argues that the proposed model is a useful tool for industry, in particular, to locate, illuminate and disrupt different points of views on audiences held by community stakeholders, and to integrate perceptions on the audience with actual audience experiences.