The Importance of Audience

(Text-only commentary)

This is Anthony Byrnes Opening the Curtain on LA Theater for KCRW.

There's a great essay by Eugenio Barba, the European theater director and thinker, where he talks about the critical role of the audience in making theater. He writes about how important it is to know the audience that you're creating for -- not in abstract terms, you know 'I'm making it for . . . them. The audience.' But specifically, who should sit in the seats? Who is your audience and why should they see and hear this piece?

Barba writes that for him, and for the theater, there's death in generality. If theater artists make work for a generic audience the result is . . . well it's generic work. Why should the theater expect people to come and pay attention, to give up time from their busy lives and invest in the story, in the drama if the work doesn't speak to them, personally? Intimately, even.

At KCRW -- that audience is you.

Everything we do, everything we put on the air is created for . . . you. Like with a great piece of theater, it's the audience that makes it possible.

If KCRW speaks to you, inspires you, informs you -- now's the time to invest in our story. Play the role that only our audience can and pick up the phone and call 800-600-KCRW (800-600-5279) or pledge online anytime at KCRW.com.

Thanks.

This is Anthony Byrnes Opening the Curtain on LA Theater for KCRW.