PUBLIC THEATRE’S SOCIAL ROLE AND ITS AUDIENCE

Abstract

Today, public theatre is directed toward adapting to its contemporary socio-economic context. In doing this, it is trying to preserve its artistic values and at the same time fulfill and diversify its social functions and missions. When we talk about public theatre’s social function, i.e. the public value it produces, some of the main issues concern its contribution to the most pressing social matters. In general, these issues concern public theatre’s role in strengthening social cohesion, cultural emancipation and social inclusion, its role in the process of opening dialogues, revising formal history and re-examining traditional forms of thinking. Fulfilment of these functions is strongly linked with the character of public theatre’s audiences. In more practical terms, the scope of public theatre’s social influence is dependent on how homogenous its audiences are. If one considers artistic organizations’ need for sustainability as a key factor in their need for constantly widening their audience, and particularly the inclusion of “others” (those not belonging to the dominant cultural group), in the context of contemporary society’s need for social and cultural inclusion, then the task of today’s public theatres becomes rather difficult. Simply said, there are too many needs to be met at the same time. The main questions this paper is asking is: to what extent do Belgrade’s public theatres understand the importance of diversifying its audiences, and how do they perceive their social role? Starting from the fact that human capital is the primary resource and success factor of any theatre organization, we explore in what manner management and employees in these theatres address these issues, i.e. how they redefine theatre’s social role and attract audiences that do not fit the dominant theatre audience model.