How can we use the web & digital media to broaden engagement in/with theatre?

A couple of things that came out of the discussion that are worth unpacking more:

Primarily we talked about how we could use digital media tools to market traditional-ish shows - ie getting bums on seats from people who wouldn’t otherwise be there. That’s absolutely something we should be trying to do, but I think we are missing a trick by not using these tools to also change the nature and quality of the engagement too.

One thing we didn’t really touch on was using such tools to open up the theatre making process - things like production and rehearsal blogs - how can we move on from the first and only interaction between audience and makers being at the point of performance? and how can we use these things to help build sustained, direct relationships between practitioners and audience members?

Another thing we didn’t really touch on but I know Derek was interested in was whether new media tools open up other avenues for performance - eg podcasting audio (conventionally “radio”) plays. Again, we covered such things as marketing means but not as potential ends in their own right. We start to stretch the definition of theatre though… how much that matters depends on your point of view I guess.

Back on the marketing tactics side of things I/we (TB) are in the process of creating a toolkit to help theatre practitioners make the most of tools like blogs/twitter/facebook/flickr etc, which will also build in some of the process opening stuff mentioned above. For details check the main TB site in the autumn.

Tom

PS for theatre podcasts check out: http://www.theatrevoice.com/