Impacts of a live performance
Impacts of a live performance
By
Jennifer L. Novak-Leonard
Alan Brown
SUMMARY
Assessing the Intrinsic Impacts of a Live Performance is an effort to define and measure how audiences are transformed by a live performance. The study’s research design consisted of a pair of questionnaires – one administered in-venue just prior to curtain, and the other sent home with the respondent and mailed back. The first questionnaire collected information about the audiences’ mental and emotional preparedness for the performance. The second questionnaire, investigated a range of reactions to the specific performance, including captivation, intellectual stimulation, emotional resonance, spiritual value, aesthetic growth and social bonding.
The data suggest that presenters should focus more on pre-performance engagement strategies in order to create higher levels of anticipation before the performance. Such engagement strategies are strongly indicated as a means of increasing anticipation, which leads to heightened levels of captivation and, therefore, the full range of impacts.
Results point to the strategic role of marketing in creating anticipation, and the importance of messaging effectively and honestly about the impacts that the performance is likely to have. Often, the marketing message is the only preparation that an audience member may have going into the performance.
Resource type: Research | Published: 2013
