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Building Audiences

Research: How Coronavirus Changed TV Viewing Habits

AUDIENCE, MEDIA Posted:

Coronavirus fundamentally changed people’s reasons for watching TV. Whereas before it was often associated with distraction and unwinding, the people we spoke to were rife with anxiety and turned to TV to relieve the stress of COVID-19. Television provided a sanctuary during lockdown for those seeking familiar and “safe” content which offered an escape from the worrying realities of the pandemic. – The Conversation

The Smithsonian’s Slow Walk To Re-Opening

AUDIENCE, VISUAL Posted:

“The building is cleaner than it’s been since 1964. It’s fabulous,” said Anthea M. Hartig, director of the National Museum of American History. Daily attendance there is about a tenth of normal, Hartig said, creating a different experience. “Instead of doing the rush through, people are spending more time because they can.” – Washington Post

D.C. Begins Pilot Program To Restart Live Theatre

AUDIENCE, THEATRE Posted:

While almost all performance venues in the District remain closed, the first company there to produce a play under new local COVID-safety protocols is GALA Hispanic Theatre, with a staging of Spanish Golden Age playwright Lope de Vega’s El perro del hortelano (“The Gardener’s Dog”, usually known in English as “The Dog in the Manger’). Thomas Floyd reports on how it’s working. – The Washington Post

Classical Concerts Under COVID: Where Things Stand In Asia, Australia/New Zealand, And the Americas

AUDIENCE, MUSIC Posted:

With governments in China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore mostly able to impose safety measures without too much pushback, case numbers are down and concert numbers are up, though usually with reduced audience. New Zealand is almost back to normal and Australia is getting there, with even a Ring cycle planned for Brisbane this month. Alas, reports David Karlin, “the contrast between Asia and the Americas could not be more stark,” though tentative returns to concert life are happening in Canada, Colombia, and Chile. – Bachtrack

Researchers Have Some Good News About Indoor Concerts And COVID

AUDIENCE, MUSIC Posted:

“Analysis of an indoor concert staged by scientists in August suggests that the impact of such events on the spread of the coronavirus is ‘low to very low’ as long as organizers ensure adequate ventilation, strict hygiene protocols and limited capacity, according to the German researchers who conducted the study.” Be aware, though, that the paper has not yet been peer-reviewed. – The New York Times

Cable TV Is Falling Off A Cliff

AUDIENCE, MEDIA Posted:

They expect about 25 million U.S. households to cancel their pay-TV subscriptions over the next five years. This is on top of the 25 million homes that have already cut the cord since 2012. At least three major media companies now expect pay-TV subscriptions to stabilize around 50 million, according to people familiar with the matter, who declined to speak on the record because their company plans are private. – CNBC

What Classical Music Loses In Screen Translation

AUDIENCE, MUSIC Posted:

The novelty of watching concerts over Zoom has worn off, and though audiences are still pleased to have anything, anything at all, to watch, the loss of physical space is real, and musicians and conductors feel it. “The absence of an audience subtracts something essential from the music as well; it becomes an unbalanced equation, an unanswered question.” – Washington Post

Online Theater Gets More Interactive

AUDIENCE, THEATRE Posted:

“Several months into the pandemic, performers, designers and writers are using technology … with more ingenuity. They’re skillfully adapting some of the devices honed in live performance over the years — namely, techniques to break the fourth wall and lure spectators into the show. And in the process, theater is reclaiming for these trying times its rightful status as the most intimate of art forms.” – The Washington Post

Eight Small Theaters Sue New York State And City For Right To Reopen

AUDIENCE, THEATRE Posted:

“The lawsuit, filed Friday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, argues that the orders shutting down theaters ‘shock the conscience and interfere with plaintiffs’ deeply-rooted liberty and property rights, including the right to work, right to contract, and right to engage in commerce.’ The theaters filing suit … have 199 seats or fewer, and most of [them] are commercial operations.” – The New York Times

Seattle Chamber Music Society Says Its Online Festival Went Surprisingly Well

AUDIENCE, MUSIC Posted:

What, cheerful classical music news right now? Yes. Adding comments such as “filled my life with joy,” hundreds of patrons responded to a survey about the Chamber Music Society’s Virtual Summer Music Festival. The festival “rated 8.4 on a scale of 10. It brought in 389 new ticket purchasers (32% of patrons) and 92 first-time donors, many international patrons, and 300 more subscribers than usual — likely because there were no constraints on the size of the concert-hall space.” – Seattle Times

London’s Old Vic Has Sold 30,000 Live Streaming Theatre Tickets … And Counting

AUDIENCE, THEATRE Posted:

It’s not an archive; it’s not live in a parking lot. It’s live and socially distanced and streamed. Those 30,000 tickets have sold to people in 73 countries. But it’s not perfect, especially for the directors and performers. “There’s no immediate response, no sense of connection, nor is there an opportunity to go out and have a drink or something to eat. Everybody just goes home, individually. It emphasizes the isolation and the loneliness and the grimness of this whole thing.” – The New York Times

China Is Now Officially The World’s Most Lucrative Movie Market

AUDIENCE, MEDIA Posted:

“Movie ticket sales in China for 2020 climbed to $1.988 billion on Sunday, surpassing North America’s total of $1.937 billion. … Analysts have long predicted that the world’s most populous country would one day top the global charts. But the results still represent a historic sea change: North America has been the global box office’s center of gravity since the dawn of the motion picture business.” – The Hollywood Reporter

A Social Media Horror Story: “Our Social Dilemma”

AUDIENCE, MEDIA Posted:

In horror, “the narrative is driven by the question of whether the creature can be destroyed.” In The Social Dilemma, the creature is you and me, or at least the tech-addicted, algorithmically-modeled version of ourselves disclosed by big-tech behaviorism. So the film’s horrifying question is this: are you willing to destroy a part of yourself, that Twitter-refreshing creature within? – 3 Quarks Daily

The Great British Baking Show Still Somehow Makes Us Feel Good About Humanity

AUDIENCE, MEDIA Posted:

After all of these seasons, a switch from the BBC, the loss of the great Mary Berry (not to mention presenters Mel and Sue), and a barrage of other baking shows, how does the Great British Baking Show still do it? “To watch The Great British Baking Show is to believe that the average guy and gal can do remarkable things, that good nature is compatible with excellence, that high achievement will be recognized, that honest feedback can lead to improvement, that there are things to life beyond work. It is to believe that spectacular creativity can actually be scrumptious.” – The Atlantic

Richmond Ballet Is Onstage, But How?

AUDIENCE, DANCE Posted:

Very, very carefully. After the city went to phase three, the dancers and administration met over Zoom to figure out a return. “The new criteria for the one-hour show, now without an intermission: only married couples or roommates performing pas de deux, choreographic selections that lean heavily on solos and trios, and masks mandated for everyone in the building.” – Pointe Magazine

This Dance Company Director Thinks The Shutdown Has Done Some Good

AUDIENCE, DANCE Posted:

Zenetta Drew, executive director of Dallas Black Dance Theater: “The arts were dying as far as how you reach new audiences, how you create new revenue streams and how you reach underserved communities. Being forced to deal with COVID has changed all that.” And she doesn’t think audiences seeing dance for free online will keep them from coming to the theater later. Why? Look at football on TV. – SMU Data Arts

Zoom Is Adding A Performance Option

AUDIENCE, MEDIA Posted:

If you’ve used apps like Eventbrite and Meetup, what’s on offer here will be familiar. As an attendee, you’ll find a space where you can discover new workshops, classes and other events to attend. You’ll be able to take part in them directly through Zoom and pay for them using a credit card or PayPal account. You also have the option to gift OnZoom tickets to your friends and family members. – Engadget

Envisioning A ‘Zoom-Plus’ Made For Virtual Performances

AUDIENCE, ISSUES Posted:

Ron Evans: “We’re still working around the fact that Zoom was not designed for a performing arts experience. What would things look like if the performing arts had a software platform of their own? … It’s clear that [it] would need new functionalities never seen before. But what exactly? I’ve put together a few thoughts.” – Arts Professional

Theatre-By-Snail-Mail

AUDIENCE, THEATRE Posted:

The audiences interact with characters one-on-one through the letters and can possibly alter the arc of the pieces through their correspondences. For a few of the play tracks, audiences can select particular characters to follow and even determine outcomes based on their response letters. “It’s a bespoke adventure—a tailor-made adventure specifically designed for you and your experience.” – American Theatre

With Big, Flexible Spaces, Several New York City Venues Insist They Can Reopen Safely

AUDIENCE, ISSUES Posted:

“The Park Avenue Armory’s vast drill hall has nearly 40,000 square feet of unobstructed open area. The Shed’s central performance space has a 115-foot-high ceiling. St. Ann’s Warehouse has 10 big double doors and a new air ionization system. … They are pressing state regulators to consider a series of architectural advantages that they say should make their buildings easier to adapt for safety than the glorious but cramped houses that symbolize New York’s theater district.” – The New York Times

Study: How Horse-Race Election Coverage Polarizes

AUDIENCE, MEDIA Posted:

“While researching Reporting Elections, we found that TV viewers are likely to see more policy coverage in countries with public service broadcasters. But even then, the overwhelming conclusion from looking at dozens of studies examining the nature of election coverage is that ‘who is going to win’? is a more compelling question than ‘what will they actually do when they win’?” – The Conversation