ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that empirical audience research in theatre studies was rather uncommon. The more visible audience participation becomes, the more apparent it becomes that audiences can participate in completely different ways. Stefanie Husel takes an autoethnographic approach as an immersed audience member while also maintaining a distanced perspective on audience practices, using her analysis of audio recordings of the spectators’ laughter during the performance as her basis. In addition to issues revolving around theatre as an institution and the relationship between theatre and society, it is precisely the audience’s behaviour, or the interplay between audience and actors in a performance situation, that is of sociological interest. As a sociologist interested in methodologies, theatre studies research on the relationship between performance and audience is extremely inspiring, especially with regard to the further development of what are known as performative social science methods.
