Audiences sit at the heart of our work. Our sector, network of venues and the artists making great theatre deserve thriving local audiences. Neither can flourish without them.

By supporting our network to take a venue-wide approach where Programming, Front of House, Operations and Marketing & Communications work in synergy, with audiences placed at the centre, our aim is to develop audiences for quality work presented across the region.

Having an Audience Engagement / Audience Development plan can help as a filter for programming choice, and drive how venues make audience focused decisions and actions.

house touring shows can support our network members audience engagement plans by providing with high-quality work, offered out on a subsidy.

How house shows support Audience Development

Whilst our offer varies season to season (depending on the productions available), where possible, we work towards supporting venues in their aims by providing work which speaks to the following five strands:

1. Developing audiences for theatre shows for babies and their grown-ups
2. Developing audiences for family theatre shows
3. Developing diverse audiences for theatre
4. Developing audiences for drama
5. Developing audiences for international theatre work

We have an Audience Engagement Starter Pack for small to mid-scale theatre venues who either don’t have an audience development plan in place, or have one that they are unsure about, or don’t use as part of their day to day work. The pack is also for venues looking to align their audience engagement plans with their business and operational plans.

Available to house network venue members

Please complete our form and we'll send you a copy of our house Audience Engagement Starter Pack.

If you need any further support after reading the pack and thinking about your plans, please contact the house team to book in a call.