Craddock and Freshwater write with a style that is deeply grounded in scholarship yet accessible to a broad readership. Their book is addressed not only to academics, but also to artists, producers, policy makers, and cultural workers. Most crucially, it centers the audience, not as data or demographics, but as a public to be welcomed, challenged, and reimagined, not simply spoken at.

Critical Stages/Scènes critiques

Offering both a careful analysis of spectatorship throughout history, and an urgent reflection on the relationship between live performance and audiences in the present, Theatre and its Audiences is that rare book – both timeless and exceptionally timely. For those of us presently involved in the task of making sense of the confusing post-lockdown performance landscape, Craddock and Freshwater offer an essential blueprint for the future of the theatre industry, by leading us carefully through big issues like technology, communication, and accessibility in the age of COVID. But they don't stop there. Rather than producing a text that is relevant to the present moment alone, they also offer a valuable framework for situating March 2020's sudden rupture – and the 'new' modes of audiencing it produced – within a long historical context. Ultimately, reading Theatre and its Audiences is to understand the necessity of learning from the past, in order to build a better, kinder, more equitable future today.

Kirsty Sedgman, University of Bristol, UK

Much more than just a textbook for students, Theatre and its Audiences combines academic rigour with real-world experience, providing an insight into how meaningful connections can be achieved with audiences, drawing on practice as well as theory. Essential reading for anyone in theatre looking to shift relationships to achieve deeper engagement.

Annabel Turpin, Co-Director, Future Arts Centres and Chief Executive, Storyhouse, UK