ABSTRACT
THE FOLLOWING TEXT is an outcome of myriad interactions, conversations and happenings that have brought the authors, along with our very helpful reviewer, to the point where we can speak to you, the reader, about the topic of how theatre can inform marketing, and arts marketing in particular. The early conversations involved a marketing lecturer, a theatre director and, later, a service design researcher. The marketing lecturer in particular wished to view the theatre as a site of learning for marketing students; a place where we could bring to life, and perhaps critique, the theatre metaphor in services. The theatre director was interested in how collaboration with marketing might help enhance the audience experience of the wider services of the theatre, and the service design researcher saw these emerging conversations on collaboration and experiences to be resonant with conversations ongoing in her own discipline. It would seem that the converging touch points were there, but we had no real idea where they would lead. In the end the Gob Squad (theatre company), and their production of Kitchen, was to be the turning point for us all.
