'ELEGANZA EXTRAVAGANZA': INVESTIGATING THE APPEAL OF DRAG THEATRE IN SOUTH AFRICA (2025)

Motives of circus attendees in South Africa: The case of Cirque du Soleil Dralion

Southern African Business Review

The purpose of this research was to determine the motives of attendees to Cirque du Soleil’s Dralion production in a developing country. The results revealed five key motives, namely uniqueness, enchantment and aesthetics, fun and entertainment, socialisation and social status and act affiliation. Clustering based on these motives revealed three distinct clusters namely Enthusiasts, Novices and Observers. These clusters show that attendees are not homogeneous in terms of their socio-demographic and behavioural profiles. While the Enthusiasts and Observers displayed similar characteristics to other clusters found in previous research, this research made a clear contribution in identifying Novices as a new emerging segment and suggesting the implications of retaining and expanding this market. The findings of this research can greatly assist marketers of these types of production to expand interest in the arts and increase accessibility to a larger audience.

Motives for attending live stand-up comedy: an audiences' perspective

African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 2018

Traditional arts institutions like theatres are battling to sustain audiences due to an abundance of competing leisure and entertainment activities as well as fewer of the young generations showing interest in live theatre performances. Arts institutions are therefore increasingly focused on capturing, satisfying and sustaining audience by means of understanding their audience's needs in terms of art consumption. Research exploring performing arts consumption from an audiences' perspective is, however, very limited. Indeed, relatively little is known about what really is of significance for audiences when they visit the theatre and is particularly true in the South African theatre context. Furthermore, motives appear to differ from genre to genre suggesting that arts audiences are heterogeneous in terms of their motives. This article therefore explores the motives of a particular theatre genre: live stand-up comedy as this genre, despite being an increasing popular mode of entertainment, has been overlooked in most theatre studies. The research findings contribute to understanding the profile and motives of the comedy theatre market in South Africa, and the study narrows the gap in arts literature regarding theatre audiences for a particular type of theatre production. It is suggested that knowledge of audiences' motives be used as a differentiating strategy to assist in creating a competitive advantage over the abundance of permanent live stand-up comedy venues in Cape Town, South Africa.

4. Street Theatre and Cabaret

Open Book Publishers, 2023

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Theatre as a risky activity A quantitative analysis of the influence of festivals on the risk perception of theatre Master thesis MA Cultural Economics and Entrepreneurship Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication

2019

In order to face attendance and financial issues, theaters have been employing audience development strategies. Much research has therefore been devoted to uncover the factors that specifically demotivate attendance in order to address them. One factor that seems to encapsulate all of them and to be actively preventing attendance to theatre venues is the perception of theatre as a risky activity. This can be considered to include the Satisfaction, Social, Psychological and Economic risk, whose perceptions all contribute to consumers’ decision (not) to attend. On the other hand, performing arts festivals are striving in attendance numbers and also seem to be popular across all age groups, a feature theaters often fail to achieve. Being festivals “special events” that happen only occasionally and showcase specific themes that help form temporary communities of festival goers, it is hypothesized that they may provide relievers for the specific components of risk associated with theatre...

The perceived contribution of South African Arts festivals to the performing arts: standardisation of the measurement scale

2015

The standardisation of a measurement scale to measure an arts festival‟s contribution to the performing arts is described. The measurement scale, namely the questionnaire, is based on literature, where the contributing factors, namely economic, emotional, educational, marketing, quality and growth and development contribution of an arts festival to the performing arts are determined based on the perception of the festival visitor. The scale proved to be a valid measure, as the exploratory factor analysis on the combined data of Innibos and Vryfees (n = 982) supported construct validity and criterion validity. Further validity was proven by a confirmatory factor analysis on the data of KKNK (n = 602). CFA fit indices also indicate that the model has a satisfactory fit with the data. The scale can also be regarded as a reliable measure based on the high Cronbach‟s alpha coefficients and inter-item correlation values of the factors. Details of the methodology are described and the subs...

Above gender : doing drag, performing authentically, and defying the norms of gender through performance in Cape Town

Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013

By submitting this thesis/dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification.

Theatre Talks -Audience Development in Three Perspectives: Marketing, Cultural Policy and Theatrical Communication

Zarządzanie w Kulturze, 2019, Tom 20, Numer 3, 2019

Theatre Talks emerged as an audience reception research method in Sweden. In this article I describe the evolution of the method and put it into practical perspectives. At first, Theatre Talks provided extensive insights into the experiences of Stockholm theatre audiences in the 1980s. Those results inspired the inventor of the method, Willmar Sauter, to develop a theatre communications model, which changed the academic discourse on the theatrical communication process. In Australia, Rebecca Scollen successfully applied the method for an audience development projects aimed at non-attenders. In Denmark, Louise Ejgod Hansen noticed that Theatre Talks might access a democratic potential of theatre. All of these effective applications of the method inspired me to look at Theatre Talks as an audience development tool from three combina-tory perspectives: (1) marketing-its potential for increased ticket sales and changing the behaviour of the customers, (2) cultural policy-for higher diversity and participation in theatre, and (3) theatrical communication-for improved understanding and better satisfaction from participation in the performance.

Insight Into Adult Classic Theatre Audiences’ Perceptions and Behaviour

Global Economics Science

Many cultural institutions are experiencing challenges to implement different types of market-oriented behaviour in order to ensure their existence. Classic theatres are faced with many challenges related to their audience. One of the challenges is related to traditional audience that is declining and ageing. The aim of this research was to identify and analyse the key factors that contribute to understanding of attitudes and behaviour of 35+ theatre audiences in order to suggest appropriate marketing strategies for the classic theatre in Croatia. The research was conducted on altogether 438 participants. Statistical techniques of univariate analysis (frequency distribution, central tendency measures), bivariate (ANOVA and t-test) and multivariate analysis (reliability analysis, linear regression) were used. The results have identified attitudes and audience behaviour in relation to HNK Osijek. Three major factors were identified: theatre marketing profile, theatre people and stereo...

“Performing Arts/Performance Art”, ISBN: 9780872896017

2011

The entry deals with the history of the Performing Arts as an engagé art form which claims the collaboration of the audience and whose characteristic is a live performance in front of the presence of an implicated public. In its specificity it is therefore called Performance Arts whereas Performing Arts is a more general term which comprises various art forms which rely on the tekne of the artists and thus do not, necessarily, present an ideological committment. Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture Dale Southerton University of Manchester, UK November 2011 1664 pages SAGE Publications, Inc Lecturers Individual Purchasers Hardcover ISBN: 9780872896017 £385.00 Pre Publication Price £325.00 The three-volume Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture covers consuming societies around the world, from the Age of Enlightenment to the present, and shows how consumption has become intrinsic to the world's social, economic, political, and cultural landscapes. Offering an invaluable interdisciplinary approach, this reference work is a useful resource for researchers in sociology, political science, consumer science, global studies, comparative studies, business and management, human geography, economics, history, anthropology, and psychology. The first encyclopedia to outline the parameters of consumer culture, the Encyclopedia provides a critical, scholarly resource on consumption and consumerism over time. Key topics: Theories and concepts Socio-economic change Socio-demographic change Identity and social differentiation Media Style and taste Mass consumptions Ethical Consumption Civil society Environment Domestic consumption Leisure Technology Work Production Markets Institutions Welfare Urban life.

Exploring South Africa’s ‘black diamonds’ at live music performances

Acta Commercii, 2014

Problem under investigation: This exploratory study fills a gap in the literature by profiling ‘black diamonds’, the South African up-and-coming middle-class market, at live music concerts. Design, methodology and approach: A destination-based survey at five concerts in South Africa in 2012 extracted a sample of 164 black diamond attendees from the rest of the audience. The attendance motives of this sample were used to identify different market segments within the sample.Findings and implications: Factor analysis identified five key motives and five key management factors for a memorable experience, and a cluster analysis found three types of black diamond concertgoers: Enthusiasts, Sentimentalists and Novices. The three clusters differed significantly in terms of their socio-demographic and behavioural characteristics, and especially in terms of what they regarded as important for a memorable experience at a live concert. These results will enable managers to package live concerts...