Abstract

Abstract:

When working on audience development for her ecotheatre show, Wastelands, Savanna Harvey was provided the opportunity to reflect on the limitations of the word 'theatre.' In an analysis founded in reader-response theory, social justice, semiotics, lived experience, and digital strategy, this article challenges the contemporary linguistic utility of the word 'theatre.' To bring her analysis outside of theory and into practice, Harvey demonstrates how this communications gap impacts audience development. She delineates how the linguistic limitations of the word 'theatre' could negatively impact face-to-face interactions, marketing materials and copywriting, and digital discoverability. When producing a piece of theatre for the environment or other justice-driven causes, the urgency of the call to action should take precedence over any nostalgia or sensibility attached to the word 'theatre.' To this end, Harvey suggests applying a more accessible and liminal terminology, one that carries less historical baggage, bypassing barriers to audience engagement for certain audience members.

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