The Argentine theater spectator. That obscure object of desire

- Nota escrita en 2019

The question about the construction of audiences, which has been asked for a long time without accurate answers, is almost rhetorical. Is there really an Argentine theatrical audience? And if so, how has it been transformed? Is it the theater that shapes its audience or the audience that shapes the theater? In other words, who does a play think of? Or is it that the theater scene is actually shaped by a kind of heterogeneous mass of desiring audiences?

According to the National Survey of Cultural Consumption, conducted by the National Secretariat of Culture in 2017, in our country only 11% of the population attends the theater. That is, if one were to work with the hypothesis of desiring mass, desire could be characterized as rather low. Of this percentage, most of what we call theatergoers reside in the city of Buenos Aires and in the center of the country, mainly in large urban agglomerates. They are mostly women, between 30 and 65 years old, of medium-high socioeconomic stratum and with a university and higher education level. This leads firstly to the question of the scarcity of the public and, secondly, to a reflection on democratization. That is, how to reach those sectors that do not have access to this type of cultural productions.

It's important to note that the number of spectators has decreased by approximately 40% compared to the 2013 survey. Hey there! I hope you're doing well. I wanted to share some information with you about the Argentine theater and music scene. According to the Argentine Association of Theatrical and Musical Entrepreneurs (AADET), ticket sales in the three main locations in the country (CABA, Mar del Plata, and Villa Carlos Paz) dropped from 691,000 in 2018 to 571,000 in 2019 during the first two months of the year. Theater producer and entrepreneur Carlos Rottemberg points out that the bordereaux are a great way to gauge the state of the middle class's pocket, making it a valuable tool for understanding the theatrical 'client.'

Whether it's a small theater or a large one, the main goal is always to capture and maintain the audience's loyalty. The strategies for making theater more accessible are quite varied. They include updating content and formats, diversifying prices by offering accessible or even free tickets, and approaching non-conventional spaces such as homes, schools, factories, the street, and the neighborhood. We aim to stop excluding non-connoisseurs and sustain an artistic environment that is more in keeping with the times.

In recent years, theater has been evolving to cater to changing audience preferences. New technologies and the need to create attractive forms of artistic intervention have led to the development of more domestic, individualized, and dynamic formats. New technologies and the need to create attractive forms of artistic intervention have led to the development of more domestic, individualized, and dynamic formats.

New technologies and the need to create attractive forms of artistic intervention have led to the development of more domestic, individualized, and dynamic formats. Examples of online theater platforms are available that allow you to buy and watch plays from the comfort of your screen. Additionally, there are plays designed specifically for social networks or WhatsApp that instruct the spectator to go through situations in public spaces with actors. You can also enjoy micro-theater, which features scenes that last just a few minutes and take place in small spaces.

These proposals may seem to go against the traditional theatrical experience, where the audience is expected to sit quietly for two hours or more. However, we understand that sometimes a sigh or a cough may interrupt the scene. We want to ensure that all audience members feel comfortable and welcome in our theater.

On the other hand, there's the independent circuit, a historical hotbed of talent and expressive avant-garde. This circuit is associated with the belief that it produces almost exclusively for the love of art, as a powerhouse of aesthetic experimentation and artistic militancy. Its audience is largely made up of the same people who produce it. Therefore, its only objective would be to convince those already passionate about the art form. However, this theater is also concerned with survival, including filling seats, paying bills, and gaining popularity, especially in challenging cultural conditions. It's important to find ways to attract audiences and sustain an independent theater project. Actor and independent theater producer Sebastián Romero recognizes the value of audience attraction strategies and is open to new ideas inspired by visual arts, street art, and marketing. Experimentation is key, from taking performances to the streets to distributing programs with poems and illustrations. Argentine theater is always striving to engage with its audience.

It's natural to wonder if new audiences can be reached, especially with changing social contexts that demand new ideas and formats.

For theater businessman Carlos Rottemberg, the audience is segmented to a certain extent, because when there is a great success, the faces start to mix: "For example, in Mar del Plata there is an audience that allows itself to see things in summer that it would not see in Buenos Aires in winter". He emphasizes that the big difference he observes in the commercial circuit is that "before the offer was more open, but now it is concentrated in comedies and humor", which is neither more nor less than what the spectator asks for.

As part of the official theater circuit, Sonia Jaroslavsky, who coordinates the area of audience management at the Teatro Nacional Cervantes, considers that to generate new audiences it is necessary to work hard. There are different populations, both from more vulnerable sectors and those with high purchasing power, who do not go to the theater: "There are barriers that prevent some people from crossing the "border" of the Colón, the Cervantes or the San Martin because they do not feel close to it or because they are more familiar with other consumption linked to mass media. It is a very handcrafted work, a follow-up of the spectators and the design of a work plan that allows to bring the programming closer to each specific population. An example of this is the cultural accessibility programs, the work with communities, trans audiences, and educational institutions, among others. In this sense, new audiences have appeared and age groups have decreased.

More and more spaces are betting on including young people. This is the case of the Recoleta Cultural Center, where they define the work axes according to themes that are relevant to the youth agenda. "Each cycle works as an umbrella to make visible artists, activists, and organizations that in our city and in other places in the world are working on these issues," says Luciana Blasco, Undersecretary of Cultural Policies and New Audiences of the City. For her, in terms of audiences in Buenos Aires, the historical audiences of each circuit coexist, which are the most loyal audiences, who identify with the type of artistic and aesthetic proposal they are going to see; with other new audiences, typical of a big city, who renew themselves and have the need to discover.

Thinking about audiences is a problem in itself because of their diversity, their diffuse nature and the difficulty of understanding their boundaries. Is there a single Argentine audience? Theater researcher and CONICET fellow, Pablo Salas Tonello, points out that a good way to analyze audiences is through state policies. "I think it has to do with the types of circulation of plays throughout the territory. In that sense, independent theater made in the City of Buenos Aires does not usually circulate to the provinces, where more commercial theater plays are received. On the other hand, plays from the interior of the country do not reach the capital and the casts usually take them to other provinces or abroad, such as Spain or Chile, because they understand that they will be better received than in the Capital". In his research, Pablo identifies that "there is an attempt to decentralize and take the performances to small cities and towns in the provinces", although he cannot say how effective it is. This is the case of organizations such as the National Theater Institute, which was created in 1997 by the National Theater Law and has as one of its main lines of action the organization of provincial, regional, and national theater festivals.

Hence, the problem of consumption cannot be answered only by a theory of desire or taste. It is impossible to think about the promotion of the activity and the construction of audiences without thinking about the context and the conditions for the development of the performing arts, the agents that design and execute policies and practices that frame the activity from production, dissemination or consumption: producers, training centers, scholarship and incentive policies, research, legislation, mass media and specialized critics, among others.

The different actors in the theater scene strive to be watched. The question is, watched by whom? In short, the public cannot be defined as a homogeneous entity. There are different audiences, and niches, which intersect and coincide in proposals of greater and lesser success. The public remains on the dark side of the room and obscure to those who seek to dissect it in search of its behaviors and desires.

Perhaps the key is not in voraciously distributing those few and renewed spectators among theaters, theaters and circuits, but in expanding and multiplying that desiring mass to create new "new spectators".