2.2: Target Audience
The Target Audience is the foundation of any vision for a production. The Target Audience is the ideal spectator, the person who buys the ticket, the person you most want to inspire. Every show, theater company, and product caters to a very specific Target Audience. Target Audience is broken into four areas and it is the combination of the areas that will focus your decisions and guide you towards success. The areas of Target Audience are as follows: Age, Race, Gender, and Social Class
Age
The age of your Audience is crucial to determining which plays to select, what jokes to allow, which themes to highlight, and how you will market the production. You want to have the age range be within a ten year window. For example 20-30 year olds or an audience comprised of people 40-50 years of age. Shows geared to audiences younger than 20 years of age need to be even more specific because the jokes and values that will resonate with a 7-10 year old audience will feel contrived, boring, and stale to a 12-17 year old audience. People develop different interests and values as they age and your play needs to reflect these values in content and presentation in order to resonate.
A show will change dramatically in response to its Target Audience. Let’s look at Romeo and Juliet. If you are producing the show for 18-28 year olds you will have to edit the production to a runtime of around 90 to 120 minutes. Your Target Audience is used to digesting stories that hold their attention for that long and as soon as you get close to a two hour run time they begin getting restless and anything longer they begin losing interest. This is very important because it does not matter how good your show is if the audience is disengaging from it. The reputation of your theater or show will be “it’s good but it’s long.” That compliment will hurt your ticket sales.
Another way Age range would affect a production is in who you cast and what themes you highlight. Your audience wants to see themselves in the characters and be taken on a journey that leaves them feeling transformed. Romeo and Juliet are teenagers in the play and if you have a young audience those actors had better look young or be teenagers. If however your audience is 20-30s you would have 20 year olds in the respective roles. Audiences 50s and up would cast 30 and 40 year olds in the roles and with those casting changes the themes of the material alter.
Race
Race plays a large factor in productions, especially if you are performing for a specific culture. Each culture has values,traditions, and experiences they hold sacred and it is your duty as an artist to make sure your Target Audience’s culture is accurately represented and treated with dignity and respect. If you are not a member of this culture you will need to do research and invite community leaders and members to teach you about the beauty of their culture and ask them to be consultants along the way. You will also need to make sure that you cast actors from this community so that the culture sees themselves represented on the stage. Each culture also views the world through a different lens and you will see material you thought you were familiar with open up in new and exciting ways. When producing a show outside of your direct culture you must be humble and approach the community with respect, humility, and an openness to learn.
One example is when I directed a production of Fences by August Wilson. I looked within my department and knew I had the talent and actors to produce an incredible production of the show. I did however, have fears that because I am Latino and not African-American, that I could offend not only the students in my department that I have worked so hard to develop relationships with, but also my community. Once I cast the show, I met with the group for our first rehearsal. The first thing that I said at the meeting was “This is an incredible show and I have the best cast I could possibly ask for. Each of you were chosen because of your talent and work ethic and I know we are going to have a great show. One thing I hated in school was when someone who was not part of my culture would lecture me and teach me about my culture. I am not going to do that, I know how that feels. I also know that I am not African-American. I do however, have deep love for your culture and in textbooks growing up I didn't get to learn about heroes from my culture. I did however learn about some of your heroes and those were the leaders that inspired me to be who I am. I am not going to pretend that I know your culture, but I do know how to put on a good play. If you can, please teach me about your culture and I will help you put on this show that celebrates your culture, you, and our community and together I think we will be unstoppable. “
Our production of Fences sold out every night and was invited to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival as a regional semifinalist production. The week before we left for the festival we performed the show a final time for our community and it was standing room only. Community members were in tears of how proud they were of our students and years later people still talk about the show. At the festival the production received two standing ovations and the cast and crew held each other backstage following the show and cried for over 45 minutes and told each other how much each person was loved. The experience was transformative for me, my students, our program, and our community only because we all worked together and the goal was to honor the culture we were performing for.
Gender
I know this may sound controversial, but men and women often value different things. This is not always the case and there are always exceptions. However, when you are looking at your show you will need to be aware of your target audience’s gender so you can highlight the themes that gender typically responds to.
Let us look at how companies sell vacuums. A vacuum cleaner commercial aimed towards women typically goes something like this: A mother walks into her home and discovers her clueless and messey family have once again destroyed the house. The mother must help clean the mess, but the problem is the husband and children are not only messy but their stupidity constantly leads them to the brink of death. The product enters to aid the mother in her quest to save family and home. The product tells mothers, “we know your struggle, and we’ve got your back.”
A vacuum commercial aimed at men typically goes something like this: A monochromatic room (resembling a garage) is beautifully lit with a spotlight on a vacuum whose mechanical elements are exposed by plexiglass and whose colored components are vibrant shades found only in sports cars. A beautiful woman enters and uses the vacuum easily. Then the product’s power is discussed through a CGI demonstration where the motor pulls apart and the internal mechanics are exposed and are then put back together.
I know that these examples can be frustrating because they rely on heavy gender stereotypes, but advertisers use them because they work. If you are staging Romeo and Juliet for men you will focus on male scenes of brotherhood and loyalty, redemption, and probably extend the fight sequences. Whereas if your Target Audience is women you would focus more on the scenes with strong personal relationships, and focus on the tragedy of these two people fighting the universe to be together. Again, this area is important in how you focus your production, but you have to be specific and know your Target Audience.
Social Class
This area is important not only in how you highlight content, but because it will determine your ticket prices. You want to charge enough so that you cover your expenses and that your audience feels they are purchasing something of value, but not so high that people cannot afford to attend your production. First ask yourself what social class is your show perfect for. Then set your prices to be competitive with the other items vying for that demographics attention. A social class that is used to paying $50-$100 for tickets to see a Broadway production, the symphony, or the ballet will expect ticket prices for a show of value to be higher. However, a social class that seldom attends live events and regularly sees movies will expect a two hour storytelling experience to be cost competitive with the cinema.
Exercises for identifying Target Audience
Books
- Choose two books. Identify the target audience for each.
- Look at the Name, Age, Race, Gender, and social class of the main character. The audience needs to see themselves as the main character.
- What world is the main character leaving and what world are they entering on their hero's journey.
- Write out and justify each choice. Then share your findings with another person and see if he/she agrees. If not discuss and see if you can find a Target Audience that you both agree on.
Movies
- Choose two movies. Identify the target audience for each.
- Look at the Name, Age, Race, Gender, and social class of the main character. The audience needs to see themselves as the main character.
- What world is the main character leaving and what world are they entering on their hero's journey.
- Look at the art direction, marketing, themes, and see if your choices align with the movies artistic decisions.
- Write out and justify each choice. Then share your findings with another person and see if he/she agrees. If not discuss and see if you can find a Target Audience that you both agree on.
- Commercials
- Choose two movies. Identify the target audience for each.
- Look at the Name, Age, Race, Gender, and social class of the main character. The audience needs to see themselves as the main character.
- What world is the main character leaving and what world are they entering on their hero's journey.
- Look at the art direction, marketing, themes, and see if your choices align with the movies artistic decisions.
- Why does the company think this Target Audience needs this product?
- Write out and justify each choice. Then share your findings with another person and see if he/she agrees. If not discuss and see if you can find a Target Audience that you both agree on.
How do I find a Target Audience for my project?
- Ask your theater what the target audience or demographic their theater appeals to?
- Ask your theater company what Target Audience you want your theater to cater to? Think for the next 30 years who do we want our audience members to be?
- Look at the play you are directing and ask yourself who would be most interested in seeing this show?