Engaging Audiences: A Cognitive Approach to Spectating in the Theatre

Engaging Audiences provides an insightful introduction to spectatorship from the perspective of cognitive studies.  Using performances of several plays and a wide array of scientific evidence, McConachie examines the dynamics of conscious attention, mental concepts, empathy, emotion, and culture in theatregoing.  This ground-breaking study challenges many of the current theories used to understand spectators and is a valuable resource to artists and scholars interested in how and why audiences enjoy performance.