Widz w teatralnym laboratorium. Performatywne praktyki partycypacyjne w teatrach a badania nad publicznością
A Spectator in a Theatre Laboratory. Performative Participatory Practices in Theatre and Audience Research

Author(s): Marzenna Wiśniewska
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Summary/Abstract: This article touches upon contemporary participatory projects and performative practices in Polish theatres provoking the redefinition of the place and the role of the spectator in the institution of the theatre. The first part of the text describes the results of the qualitative research presented in Badanie publiczności teatrów w stolicy. Raport, 2013 (Audience Research of the Theatres in the Capital. A Report) and the commentary. In the centre of the article, there are two areas of theatre practices, which may be identified as sui generis theatre laboratories in the forming of the “art of being a spectator” (Robert Demarcy). The first one is theatre pedagogy; it expands the standard theatre repertoire activity to performative artistic and educational strategies, which strengthen feedback in the stage—audience relation and pose a challenge to perform the theatrical event and the theatre itself. The examples of models of such actions are the programmes of the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute and the “Theatre in the Class” project by Teatr Powszechny of Zygmunt Hübner in Warsaw. The second area of the phenomenon of a theatre audience laboratory includes the realisation of the theatre as a participatory project; the examples are, among others, Chór Kobiet (The Choir of Women) and performative projects of the Polish Theatre in Bydgoszcz under the management of Paweł Łysak. The purpose of the article is to point to the places where the paradigm of the theatre as an institution producing shows is challenged in favour of a performative institution, which co-creates complexes of performances with spectators, making the theatre a real tool and a place of empowerment.

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