Rebecca Scollen

This paper examines a selection of 21st-century international examples of exhibited visual artworks involving live or deceased animals. It seeks to reveal the risks and benefits of unique encounters with animals through art and to consider the ethical implications of artwork deploying animals. Australian and international animal protection laws are not explicit when it comes to the sourcing of animals for art nor for the direct inclusion of animals in artworks. This lack leads to a variety of artistic practices, some considered ethical while others are viewed as controversial, bordering on animal cruelty. Artwork selection is determined by a focus on high-profile artists who intentionally use animals in their practice and whose reputation has been fostered by this intention. The study provides insight into how the intentional use of ethically sourced animals within art practice can be a method of addressing hierarchal human–animal imbalances. Further, this study identifies unethical...

Abstract Observation of Sea World – Gold Coast, Australia’s 2015 and 2018 onsite signage and live animal shows provides indication of a significant shift in legitimating rhetoric. The keeping of animals in captivity has become an increasingly contentious issue requiring zoos and marine parks to reposition themselves to remain viable as tourism enterprises to be sustained into the future. Recent protests by animal rights activists in Australia exemplifies the ideological challenges to the keeping of marine animals in captivity. To survive and thrive all organisations including marine parks must present an ideologically sustainable position which is consistent through their messaging and practices. Participant observation and discourse analysis are applied in this study to reveal the messaging employed by Sea World – Gold Coast, Australia in two separate years, and by doing so to identify the changes in legitimation framing over the period. Examples of onsite signage and live animal shows at the theme park, demonstrate that the legitimating discourses have shifted from its role in educating the public about marine animals and conservation in 2015, to highlighting its role as authorised, expert facility understood as a place of refuge to care for individual animals in 2018.

Purpose This paper aims to discuss the role of a grassroots initiative in engaging local people in an innovative place-making fringe festival. Festivals such as the Carnival of Flowers are a major tourism event for regional cities like Toowoomba and contribute to place-making through marketing and engagement. Within the professional management of such events, there exists space for innovation and genuine community involvement, which can assist in authentically reflecting place identity. Avant Garden (2007-2008) models a successful grassroots fringe festival, initiated by community members in response to the challenge of long-term drought. Avant Garden engaged locals and tourists in a positive re-imagining of place via site-specific public artworks generated by the community. Design/methodology/approach A survey of 504 visitors to Toowoomba’s public gardens during the first weekend of the 2007 Carnival of Flowers examined how Avant Garden was received by the community. Findings The paper suggests that fringe festivals can provide place-making capacity in broadening festivals as an expression of local identity. Fringe festivals can allow authentic community engagement within a mainstream festival and can indicate longer-term innovations to place branding. Practical implications The paper includes implications for festival managers about effective ways to engage community in grassroots initiatives which reflect innovation, authenticity and greater diversity. Originality/value The paper provides a study of a visual arts fringe festival in the context of place management. The project described allows a “bottom up” approach to engaging the local community which provides authenticity and broadens the scope of an existing mainstream garden festival.

Test Drive the Arts (Morris Hargreaves McIntyre) and Talking Theatre (Scollen) are two successful audience development methodologies committed to building new audiences from non-attenders. This paper details the two methodologies to explain their similarities and differences, and to examine these in relation to the findings of case studies in the United Kingdom (UK), New Zealand and Australia. Although Test Drive the Arts has helped performing arts organisations in the UK to retain 30% of the new audiences who participated in their program, the New Zealand pilot of this scheme in 2007 has fallen well short of the mark. Talking Theatre has retained 30% of its participants as returning new audiences for performing arts centres in regional North-Eastern Australia by placing strong emphasis on post-performance audience reception, and by investing more in mutually beneficial relationships between new audience members and performing arts organisations.

... 1 thought so many of the actors were strong but he stayed with me because I just thought, you know, he made things that really would have been nothing on paper into a really entertaining piece.^^ Although not all of the plays were comedies, they did all contain comic elements ...

... 1 thought so many of the actors were strong but he stayed with me because I just thought, you know, he made things that really would have been nothing on paper into a really entertaining piece.^^ Although not all of the plays were comedies, they did all contain comic elements ...

... Scollen, Rebecca (2002) Building new theatre audiences : post performance audience reception in action ... Keywords: Theater audiences, Theater Marketing, Theater Australia Marketing, Theater surveys Australia, audience development, theatregoing, reception, marketing, focus ...

... Rebecca taught in the Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of ... 1 Araluen Centre in Alice Springs, Darwin Entertainment Centre, Cairns Civic Theatre, Mackay Entertainment Centre, Townsville Civic Theatre, Burdekin Theatre in Ayr, World Theatre in Charters ...

... rural, mining, manufacturing, education, health, and tourism) that employ the residents. Each PAC differs in size (venue, seating capacity, staffing, and funding), which directly impacts ontheatre programming, promotion and marketing, and audience research and development. ...

... Peter Copeman and Rebecca Scollen ... The two lead roles of You Bok Mun and Louise Carter were played respectively by Lawrence Mah, a professional actor, and Christine Comans, a member of the Academy's academic staff, both of whom had already played their roles in the ...

This chapter will explain how sport can be understood as a theatrical event. Important to include in this context is the thought that sport and theatre are understood to be professional and to be live performances. A discussion of the common aspects of theatre and sport leads to a consideration of aesthetics and a metaphorical analysis of both forms. Throughout, statistics gained from an audience reception study of the Davis Cup (Scollen, 2000a) will be presented in support of the claims under consideration.

Theatre audiences, and potential theatre audiences, are important to me. I believe that without an audience there is little point in performing, and without commitment to audience reception there is little point trying to evolve as an artist or theatre organisation.

Tall Tales and Other Adventures is a visual research project partnered by USQ, Dogwood Crossing and Flying Arts Alliance Inc., exploring the notion of creative resilience within regional contexts through innovative and diverse 3D art practices. This exhibition catalogue presents a series of essays that provides an important platform for visual art and cross-disciplinary discourses on studio research within an academic environment and its capacity to navigate and engage diverse communities. More specifically, studio research is addressed in terms of the exhibition's curatorial premise on fictional storytelling drawing from the literary reference of 'a willing suspension of disbelief' in order to engage contemporary audiences. The publication marks an important creative contribution of emerging artists on a professional contemporary art platform as their works tour across regional galleries (USQ Arts Gallery March 2014, Dogwood Crossing in Miles, May 2014 and Texas Regiona...

Talking Theatre was a three year research project funded by the Australian Research Council, NARPACA, Arts Queensland, Arts Northern Territory, and the Queensland University of Technology. Talking Theatre sought to build new audiences both in the short and long term for the fourteen regional performing arts centres associated with the project. The research endeavoured to develop a profile of non-theatregoers in regional areas, to understand their reasons for non-attendance, and to discover their reactions to live performances, and to the performing arts centres who presented them.

The primary aim of the project was to expose audience perceptions of La Boite Theatre's 1998 season; secondly, to test and to refine the methodology; thirdly, to discover the reasons why participants do not regularly attend theatre productions. La Boite Theatre is a professional company seen to be positioned between the larger State company and smaller professional and amateur companies in Brisbane. It is a theatre-in-the-round and so its spatial dynamics are conducive to audience participation and close involvement with the drama. In 1998 La Boite Theatre's season of plays was as follows: The John Wayne Principle, Emma Celebrazione!, The Conjurers, Speaking in Tongues, X-Stacy, and A Beautiful Life. The 1998 La Boite Theatre audience reception study contained three groups of twelve participants. All were non-regular theatregoers. In each group there were two of each gender in the 20s, 30-40s, and 50+ age groups earning a variety of incomes. An outline of this study, its suc...

In setting 'resilience' as the theme for ADSA’s 2016 conference, we were conscious of the challenges facing both the entertainment industry and the higher education sector in Australia at the moment, but throughout the region more broadly. We were also aware of the parallels with two other recent ADSA conferences. Namely, the 2014 conference hosted by the Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand with the theme of 'Restoring Balance' and the 2012 conference hosted by Queensland University of Technology with theme 'Compass Points', especially the words of the editors in their introduction to that conference’s proceedings: 'We think the ADSA community too is characterised by the strength, resilience and determination sometimes needed to push through the rough patches to continue to create and report on some of the most meaningful elements of our local, national and international cultural landscapes.'

They're interested in the performing arts; they read reviews; notice ads and have an idea of what attending a live show might be like...but they don't go. Why not? And how might we get them there? These are questions I set out to answer in both my doctoral thesis and in my current work as a researcher on an audience development program in regional Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The purpose of this study is to investigate animal and human relations as constructed, and as demonstrated, through the live performances at Sea World on the Gold Coast, Australia. Particular attention is placed upon the meanings generated by the intersection of the starring animals and humans in the two narrative-driven productions. The study employs participant observation at three performances of Fish Detectives and Affinity. Fish Detectives highlights the dangers of overfishing the Earth’s oceans in a play where the sea lions and pelican involved in the show perform alongside human actors. The animals do not perform their species but instead present anthropomorphic characters that have human traits. Affinity focuses on the long-held relationship between humans and dolphins and stresses the importance of keeping the oceans clean to protect the health of both. This show is one of demonstration with narrated information interspersed by impressive routines by the dolphins and human ...

Depending upon whether you are thinking of the Borg from 'Star Trek' or the Vogon from the 'Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy', the old saying goes ‘Resistance is futile/useless’. Sometimes it is best to adapt, revise, regroup, move, bend, or change rather than resist. To remain relevant, vital and strong resilience is important. Resilience enables us to hang in there, to recover quickly, to rebuild and thrive. Sometimes the focus of our art/research/educational practices/sector is building resilience in others. Sometimes it is important to focus on building resilience within ourselves as individuals or in our communities of practice. Resilience implies a source of compression, a passage of time, and a process (or an innate ability) to spring back to a (positive) “normal” state.

Rebecca Scollen is currently conducting an audience reception study for LaBoite Theatre Company. The primary aim is to expose participants' perceptions of La Boite's productions and discover their attitudes to theatre in general. Initial results have been valuable and it is expected that the complete study may aid the company in its artistic choices for the future. So far the participants are responding positively to the group discussion sessions and their understanding and appreciation of theatre has grown.

When groups of regional non-theatregoers experience a selection of plays and then report that most enjoyed them, could understand them, could relate to them, and would like to see more of them, the obvious questions to ask are “Why were they non-theatregoers? and how can we ensure that they now return?” This paper details regional non-theatregoers’ (or new audiences’) reception of plays to demonstrate how theatre is perceived by the recently-introduced. By better understanding new audiences and their reception of plays, more effective decisions can be made to impact on the creation of new work, the programming of seasonal repertoire, and the marketing of plays with this significant segment of the community in mind. Likewise, the non-theatregoers’ introduction to ‘the world of theatre’ enables them to directly experience live plays and to become more knowledgeable about what the theatre has to offer and how they might engage with it.

On the 24th August 2016, the culminating performance of Opera Queensland’s ‘Project Rossini’ production of The Barber of Seville was held at Toowoomba’s Empire Theatre. The performance was the last in a series of 8 performances across Queensland between July and August 2016. This report outlines an evaluation of the Toowoomba production of The Barber of Seville. Of particular focus are the intentions that underpinned the tour and Opera Q’s commitment to ensuring that regional performers and audiences were engaged as an integral component of the performance. Further to this, the approaches taken by Opera Q for considering the place of the performing arts (and opera specifically) within the regional performance landscape, and the role that regionally based performers and audiences provided as a foundation for touring performing arts productions offer added points of consideration. The lessons drawn from the approach deployed by Opera Q have resonance broadly for touring creative and p...

Review of Monika Shafi's publication, Approaches to Teaching Grass's The Tin Drum. Approaches to Teaching Grass’s The Tin Drum provides multiple techniques for teaching school, and undergraduate, students about Grass’s first novel, The Tin Drum. Each chapter in the book explains how to critically engage with the novel from a different point of view. Part One (Materials) briefly highlights extraneous resources to enhance readers’ understanding of the text and its context. It discusses further reading for students as well as films and other audiovisual resources to assist their understanding of the novel. Part Two (Approaches) presents eighteen chapters, each instructing the reader how to interpret the novel according to a specific perspective and how to instruct others in this interpretation. The chapters are grouped under four headings: historical contexts; narrative and reading strategies; teaching issues of race and gender; and teaching the film Die Blechtrommel.

The aim of this research is to arrive at an effective method for gathering and analysing nontheatregoers' reception of theatrical performance. It is anticipated that this method will provide insight into non-theatregoers' reasons for non-attendance, their reactions to theatre productions, and the likelihood that they might change their attitudes towards theatregoing and become theatre attenders in the future. A combined methodical approach to audience reception is created by adapting and combining the methods of Sauter (1986), Lidstone (1996), Knodel (1993) and Krueger (1994), and the model of Miles and Huberman (1984). This approach consists of a collection of questionnaires, a series of post performance group discussions, and analytical methods designed for examining qualitative data. This approach is tested and refined across three studies: a 1997 Pilot Study, a 1998 La Boite Theatre Study, and a 2000 Queensland Theatre Company Study. The primary result of this research i...

In 2010, the annual University of Southern Queensland (USQ) Shakespeare in the Park Festival (SitPF) was held in Queens Park, Toowoomba, Queensland for the seventh consecutive year. This large outdoor theatre event was established to encourage greater attendances to performances of Shakespeare's plays by making them more accessible to the public. Attendance levels at SitPF have grown by 170 per cent since its inception in 2004. In 2009, audience research was conducted to ascertain the barriers to attendance, as well as patrons' opinions of SitPF. Results showed that the primary deterrent to attendance was the fear that the Shakespearean content would not be understood or enjoyed. Only one-third of the 2009 SitPF audience, and of the repeat SitPF patrons, attended primarily because of the Shakespearean content. Interestingly, the Shakespearean content did not play a significant part in the overall enjoyment of the event for either type of SitPF audience.

Audience development is somewhat of a ‘buzz word’ within the Australian performing arts sector at present. However, rather than actually engaging with audiences and with non-attenders to discover how to best serve the community, most of the performing arts organisations approach audience development from a product-centred viewpoint.In direct contrast to this, the Talking Theatre project (2004–2006) was implemented in regional Queensland and in the Northern Territory in Australia as an audience development initiative focused on the consumer. The project sought to assist performing arts centres (PACs) to better engage with their local communities and to build new audiences for the future. In particular, the research aimed to understand non-attenders, their reasons for non-attendance and their reactions to a range of live performances they experienced under study conditions.The Talking Theatre project provided the vehicle for introduction, communication and relationship building to occur to assist in attitudinal and behavioural change. The non-attenders enjoyed their experiences at the PACs and have begun attending performances outside of study conditions. Limited awareness of the performing arts' relevance to their lives combined with a lack of positive peer influence to attend, were the chief deterrents to attendance for the participants in the study.Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Audience development is somewhat of a ‘buzz word’ within the Australian performing arts sector at present. However, rather than actually engaging with audiences and with non-attenders to discover how to best serve the community, most of the performing arts organisations approach audience development from a product-centred viewpoint.In direct contrast to this, the Talking Theatre project (2004–2006) was implemented in regional Queensland and in the Northern Territory in Australia as an audience development initiative focused on the consumer. The project sought to assist performing arts centres (PACs) to better engage with their local communities and to build new audiences for the future. In particular, the research aimed to understand non-attenders, their reasons for non-attendance and their reactions to a range of live performances they experienced under study conditions.The Talking Theatre project provided the vehicle for introduction, communication and relationship building to occur to assist in attitudinal and behavioural change. The non-attenders enjoyed their experiences at the PACs and have begun attending performances outside of study conditions. Limited awareness of the performing arts' relevance to their lives combined with a lack of positive peer influence to attend, were the chief deterrents to attendance for the participants in the study.