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, Bruce McConachie examines the dynamics of conscious attention, mental concepts, empathy, emotion, and culture in theatre-going. This ground-breaking study challenges many of the current theories used to understand spectators and is a valuable resource for artists and scholars interested in how and why audiences enjoy performance.