Target Market: life-giving or life-sapping?

By far the most asked question I've received from 'theatre people' about 'The Zanniskinheads...' is "What market do you think this show is for?", and when I'm feeling honest I've just said "I dunno really..?".


"What do they mean 'what audience'? Everyone! Surely everyone on planet earth will be intrigued, mystified, elated and yet deeply moved by our production? Won't everyone want to come?!!"

Once I'd removed myself from this place of fantasy, I carefully tried to pin down who our audience is for this show, and I feel I'm only at the beginning of understanding what has to be said is practically un-understandable. We're asking "what type of person, what would come and see this show, and enjoy it? Who is my stereo-typical audience member", which given the universal uniqueness of humanity is pretty taxing.

My conclusion so far is people who are young, either in age or in spirit, those who can somehow suspend disbelief and enter into the characters' world, accepting the Zanniskinheads as they are, and enjoying them, rather than judging them and ruminating over the politics of their behaviour. Common groups so far have included late teens, and middle-aged couples!

Through this un-scientific process, I've uncovered an enormous can-of-worms lingering within the arts industry, which is that the very idea of market-research to some artists is insulting and frowned upon. The logic is that if producers or artistic directors are assessing and gathering data on audience demographics of an arts organisation, they will for the sake of finance direct the artistic product in a certain direction, contrived to meet the artistic desires of said audience. Put simply, they will find out who the audience is for a company/artist, find out what they want, then give it to them. Could there be a deeper more exasperating crime?!! (Hoping my irony reaches across the web there). The argument also is given that market research can only assess current tastes, where as art is about creating and generating new taste in the audience - this is a more compelling argument, but certainly not damning. Finally, its thought that if detailed data is gathered and used to guide the artistic product, the result will for certain only cater for the lowest common denominator, the broadest and most widely applicable desire.
 

Firstly, why is the arts industry so cagey about finance? What's wrong with making money? I'm sure the historical poverty of our industry is self-perpetuated by some desire to be 'poor and pure'. The phrase 'Commedia dell'Arte' can be translated 'Professional Theatre', which is ironic seeing as most people who continue the art form now do so in an amateur environment. For me it comes down to sustainability. If something doesn't pay your wages, its not sustainable, because at some point your resources will run out, the credit cards will be maxed, and your long term girlfriend is staring that little bit longer into the jeweler's window, and you'll put the business 'on hold'. If something isn't sustainable, why sew into it? Or better, if something can't sustain itself long enough to achieve its own aims, why bother? For temporary profile raising, self-satisfaction or artistic exploration - absolutely. But an arts organisation must have a financial sustainability if it wants to achieve the usually long-term aims and objectives it walks towards (such as ours!).

Secondly, I agree that art isn't about giving people solely what they want, hence part of our mission statement being "to go beyond the expectations of the audience" because I hate going to the theatre and being able to too accurately predict what it's going to be like. But I don't see how understanding our audience better determines that we will pander to their most common tastes. Surely by knowing their tastes better, we can decide how to meet them and how to not meet them, how to stir them and how to challenge them, how to embrace them and how to rebuke them. Surely this is the very work of an artist?

For me personally, I've long realised that I write much more fluently and clearly with set boundaries in place. Give me a blank sheet of paper and say "write anything you want, for any medium, for anyone" and I'm lost (and depressed!). But give me a brief, with boundaries, a medium, and a set audience, and my creative juices flow almost instantly as I envision my public in their location, sat, watching, rustling papers, standing up and sitting down, waiting to see something that engages their minds & hearts. Who are they? What do they want? What would inspire them? What would challenge them? How can I make them laugh? Furthermore, if like ourselves, you're a non-for-profit company relying on subsidy, your chances of securing funding are at least tripled by having a clear picture of who you are serving and how public money (through ACE for example) will benefit the people you intend to engage.

To me this is life-giving. Disagree? Why not write a comment?

Zanniskinheads UK tour begins 28th September at Camberley Theatre, all details on the website.

Christopher

Commedia dell'Arte in the 21st Century: Our journey

In July 2009 I spent four months working with one of world’s only remaining Commedia masters, Antonio Fava, at his International School which he has run successfully for the last 27 years.
Rediscovering European theatre’s foundational art form, the Commedia dell’Arte, was a revelation to say the least, and I found myself gripped by the power of the masks and their empowering of the actors. My return to the UK coincided with my establishing of Slingshot Theatre, a company set up to create exciting new theatre, with my sights firmly set on our debut show bringing Commedia to a contemporary audience.

Our artistic problem lied in relating something so cloaked in Renaissance culture to a modern audience, without disrespecting it or simply ignoring parts of it we didn’t know what to do with. The fixed points of Commedia had to remain present: masks, fixed types, improvisation, multi-lingualism, and Lazzi – comic actions not simply comic utterance. However Commedia’s dramaturgy is very dated, (marriage contracts etc.), the character’s names all carry detailed meaning in Italian, but not in English, and a small-scale production would not be able to accommodate the usual cast of 12-14 actors who give life to the full community of characters.

The answer lay in Antonio’s ‘Zanni-Skinhead’ mask. In Renaissance Commedia, Zanni was the foundational character, a poor, simple servant from the mountain regions, who sojourned to the city in search of work. His life is basic, led by two primary needs, food and sleep, and in summary: instant gratification. These marginalised bumpkins serve to survive, and serve badly because they are stupid. On a visit to the UK, a chance encounter with some aggressive skinheads inspired Antonio to utilise an artistic similarity between these two groups to propel Zanni 450 years into the future, rooting him in contemporary culture, dramaturgy and theatre. So fascinating was this Zanni-Skinhead character, we found the presence of any other character onstage unnecessary, which gave birth to the comic couple of ‘Peenut’ and ‘Ribbón’.

Through an international collaboration between Slingshot, ‘O Pernacchio (Switzerland) and Antonio’s ArscomicA (Italy) The Zanniskinheads and the Quest for the Holy Balls was born, directed by Antonio, and performed by myself and my Swiss colleague, the wonderfully talented Jean-Luc Grandin. It’s been exhilarating, risky and an incredible privilege to put together, but remarkably challenging and has been met with a violently varied response. We’ve had roaring laughter and mass walk-outs - it really is theatrical marmite, you either love it or you hate it and there’s not really an in between. However we don’t apologise for these matters of taste. We defend our culture and Commedia’s rich tradition, while serving a contemporary crowd and humbly aspiring to be better.

Many people ask me “who is the audience for this work?” and my answer is simply people who are young, in age or in heart. For the young don’t question or analyse the mask, they simply embrace it and enjoy it for all its worth, they accept the Zanni-Skinheads as they are, and rejoice in their idiocy, the idiocy of humanity.

Written August 26th, 2011 for Whatsonstage.com