Like many sectors, the global live performance industry is facing unprecedented economic uncertainty. Unlike other sectors, which have been adopting and adapting to emerging technologies to inform and innovate their businesses for years, most theatre companies today run on the same revenue model they were using more than 500 years ago: ‘bums on seats’. If tickets aren’t selling – usually at a minimum 80% of capacity – the entire business model falls apart. Even for the handful of companies that receive extensive government subsidy, private philanthropy or sponsorship fees in the multiples of millions, the fundamental value-add is built on assembling hundreds or thousands of people in confined spaces to experience content. This means that today, the industry is facing its biggest challenge since the outbreak of the Second World War.
As Sam Mendes wrote in last week’s Financial Times, this is not the time for hand-wringing or philanthropy. This is an opportunity for theatres – and their funding partners – to invest in innovative ideas that will permanently augment their commercial models. Throughout CogX – the UK’s largest festival of AI and breakthrough technology – leaders from across the finance, technology and government sectors established that digital partnerships will be key to unlocking the future. We sat down with Kwame Kwei-Armah (Artistic Director, the Young Vic), Lolita Chakrabarti (Actress and playwright) and Adrian Lester (Actor and director) to explore how emerging technology will create access, build sustainability, and enable creativity for the next ten years and beyond. The full conversation is available here.
As the Artistic Director of Baltimore’s Center Stage theatre, Kwame oversaw a collaborative project with Johns Hopkins University, which introduced roaming robots into the auditorium and enabled hospitalised children to engage in live performances. This is just one example of the potential for technology to distribute the joy of performance beyond the theatre, and one of the recurring themes addressed throughout the panel discussion was the capacity of technology to widen access to the performing arts. During this period of isolation, audiences have turned to the performing arts as a source of entertainment and escapism. More than ten million people have viewed the National Theatre at Home streams since lockdown began, tuning in across the globe from Australia to the USA. Boster Group’s audience poll indicated that 85% of those watching the panel discussion engaged with theatre, dance or live music on digital and virtual platforms during the pandemic.
Not only do online platforms facilitate engagement with theatre across geographic boundaries, they also present an improved experience for viewers suffering from hearing and vision impairments. The National Theatre has identified that 21% of their online audience use subtitles and more than 65,000 viewed the audio-described version of Twelfth Night. These figures offer an invaluable insight into the accessibility requirements of theatre audiences, which the National Theatre have been working to meet through the development of technology solutions such as smart caption glasses. This element of technology-enabled social impact ties directly to the key mission of many cultural institutions.
As in the luxury and retail sectors, one of the key benefits of digital engagement for cultural institutions is the wealth of data generated on audiences and their behaviours. The increased online engagement that has taken place over the lockdown period presents performing arts institutions with an opportunity to harness key audience information, which can be used to inform decision making and improve the theatre experience for all. The lack of funding to collect and analyse that data is a hurdle, but the potential return – in terms of social impact and insights on valuable audiences – would be immense for institutions and their supporters.
The digital presentation of performance, in addition to lifting barriers relating to mobility and geography, offers engagement opportunities for economically disadvantaged groups. Many theatres and performing arts companies during the lockdown period have offered digital content to audiences for free. Whether this digital content should be monetised is a topic of much debate, and is a significant consideration for a sector where 70% of venues face financial insolvency following more than three months of lockdown. Theatres that do choose to adopt a pay-per-view model will likely see an inverse correlation between paid access and audience engagement figures, complicating the balance between financial sustainability and access during an unprecedented economic period.
The climate emergency was one of the key themes of this year’s CogX. Our panel discussion explored the important role technology can play in improving the theatre industry’s sustainability credentials. Kwame spoke about his desire to run a season completely devoid of material scenery, as a statement of his support for the climate agenda. Alongside Adrian, he spoke about the use of 3D printing in set design to replace commonly-used non-renewable materials, such as steel. Kwame also proposed the use of green screens as a more sustainable alternative to physical stage sets. Mixed reality environments, such as White Light’s SmartStage product, offer an even more sophisticated solution, enabling actors to interact in real time with live virtual settings.
Technology also enables actors to perform virtually on stage, without being physically present in the theatre environment. Lolita touched on the idea of using holograms that present recorded performances of actors in a live setting. This is reminiscent of The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of The Tempest, in which a digital avatar portrayed the character of Ariel; a product of the company’s collaboration with Intel and The Imaginarium Studios. Technology also allows actors to connect with creatives across the world, enabling them to rehearse and perform together in real time on the same stage through high speed digital connectivity and screen projections. These digital advances challenge the need for actors to travel to perform, and present potential solutions to cut down on the theatre industry’s carbon footprint, which in 2008 amounted to 50,000 tonnes a year in London alone. Digitally-enabled companies partnering with the performing arts can help them adopt more sustainable practices.
Our panellists unanimously agreed with UK audiences that live performance will never be fully supplanted by virtual or digital experiences. As in other sectors, technology is a valuable tool for augmenting the core elements of business processes. In theatre, that is telling stories.
Lolita’s recent adaptation of Invisible Cities brought together dance, music, and digital projection courtesy of 59 Productions, a design studio working at the intersection of creativity and cutting-edge technology. The interdisciplinary nature of the performance elevated the production, but Lolita pointed out that every one of these components circled around the central aspect of the show: the story. Adrian echoed similar sentiments about the use of technical aspects in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time that mimic the impact of autism, augmenting the storytelling by creating another way foraudiences to empathise with the protagonist. In the Young Vic’s Draw Me Close, an immersive animated memoir combining virtual reality technology with live storytelling, technology was used to enhance the relationship between a mother and her son, producing a more intimate encounter between the audience and performer.
Our panel discussion also touched on the incorporation of small screen devices into live performance; a reversal of typical theatre protocol and an innovative means of adding an engaging, digital layer to live productions. Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran, which was performed at Edinburgh Festival last year, invited viewers to engage with the actors on stage through Instagram as well as through their live performances. The Donmar Warehouse’s production of Privacy similarly engaged audiences through a hybrid of live performance and mobile phone interactivity. Small screen devices present an attainable way for theatres to experiment with the integration of digital components, without compromising the corporeal immediacy or shared experience of live performance – two components which are central to the appeal of the performing arts, as Adrian pointed out.
The year ahead will be a monumental challenge for performing arts venues, and digital engagement will remain central to the industry’s survival strategy. As playwright James Graham recently indicated, there is no economically viable way for theatres to implement social distancing measures and operate at the capacity required to sustain themselves financially. One of the few ways that actors and directors are engaging with audiences while theatres are closed is through the presentation of performance content on digital platforms. One such example is the BBC’s upcoming broadcast of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, which is produced by Nicholas Hytner and directed and acted by a roster of talented individuals including Josie Rourke, Martin Freeman and Jodie Comer. Airing on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, the series supports Kwame’s view that the future of live performance relies on experimenting with digital distribution – and that going forward, theatre budgets and partnerships will adapt to accommodate this. To quote Sam Mendes, “It would be ironic if TV streaming services were to make lockdown millions while the very source of our acting, producing, writing and directing talent pool was allowed to die.”
To support this pipeline of content and talent, Boster Group invites platforms and companies with digital capabilities to collaborate with the performing arts; a central pillar of the UK’s creative industries which contribute over £100 billion annually to the UK economy. It is in everyone’s interest to safeguard the future of theatre, and digital partnerships will be crucial in helping performing arts institutions overcome the challenges of the present.