#CIAM: Will Digital Innovation Be The Future Of Theatre?
If you follow me on Twitter then you might have noticed that since Christmas I have been hash-tagging certain tweets as #ciam. The hashtag belongs to the penultimate module of my undergraduate LIPA life, Contemporary Issues in Arts Management, a series of guest lectures from members of the performing arts, music and entertainment industries which culminates in a student led conference the week of 12 April 2010 at Liverpool’s Contemporary Urban Centre.
As someone studying Music, Theatre and Entertainment Management being asked to deliver a 20 minute conference paper on a current issue in the industry opens up almost endless possibilities. This is probably a good thing as all 30 of my classmates will be delivering presentations. The fantastic thing about the conference, and indeed the course, is the huge range of perspectives people approach things from. To get a bit of an insight into the range of topics being covered have a look at the collated abstracts on the conference’s website.
For my own paper I chose to look at an area of the theatre industry I find incredibly exciting: the digital theatre and theatre to cinema streaming experimentation which appears to be taking place. The handful of organisations involved are taking huge reputation and financial risks with projects such as NT Live. The thing that truly excites me about these developments are the ways in which this innovation moves theatre towards mass distribution, changing the fundamental business model of theatre completely. I copy my own abstract below and would love to hear your opinions on the subject.
Shifts into digital economies have been seen in a number of the creative industries including music, media and journalism. As digital consumption has become possible the expectations of audiences have also developed, with each sector being forced to evaluate how its business models can survive in the new economy. Will the possibility of a digital future redefine the way that the theatre sector operates?
Moving the conventions of traditional theatre into a digital age may prove more difficult for an industry which survives by selling the ‘live’ nature of its product as ‘experiential goods’. The advent of digital will present challenges in many aspects of the industry, altering the fundamental business model to one where, for the first time, mass distribution is possible. Theatre companies at all levels of the industry will suddenly face the potential for their entire economic model to shift, allowing them to reach far greater audiences than pure live performance ever allowed.
This paper will discuss a number of the opportunities and challenges which face theatre if it is to embrace the digital revolution. From examining the small number of organisations who have embraced the digital sphere or launched pilot projects, it appears that this radical shift in the business model of theatre will impact the wider performing arts sector, those it employs, the audience for whom its work is created, and the art itself.
Keywords submitted to conference brochure:
Digital Media, Emerging Models, Mass Distribution, Monetization, Live Streaming, Digital Theatre, Revenue Streams
Photo credit: Phill.d on Flickr
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http://twitter.com/tom_atkins Tom Atkins
