New method to measure the impact of a theatre visit
What stays with you after a show? How does a night at the theatre affect you? The research project Beyond Applause offers a new way to understand and measure the impact of performing arts. Chassé Theater (Breda), Parkstad Limburg Theaters (Heerlen, Kerkrade and Sittard), and Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas) spent a year working together to develop a practical tool that captures the meaning of theatre experiences for audiences.
- About BUas
- Collaboration
- Research
The project was funded by Regieorgaan SIA through the KIEM programme. The research team consisted of Ondrej Mitas, Pieter de Rooij, Moji Shahvali en Adriaan van Liempt, all researchers at BUas. They worked closely with the theatres to explore how impact can be measured in a clear and accessible way.
Impact at the heart of theatre
For both theatres, creating impact is not new. They have long believed that theatre enriches life – by boosting wellbeing, sparking new perspectives, and encouraging personal growth. As society increasingly values this kind of impact, the need to understand and explain it grows. Audiences, governments, funding agencies and other partners demand evidence of impact.
The key question is: what really moves people?
The researchers followed dozens of performances and asked visitors about their experiences on three separate occasions. The questions asked came from previous research on experience impacts. What did they feel? What stayed with them? Two simple questions turned out to be the most powerful in predicting later improvements in wellbeing:
- Did the performance make you forget everything around you?
- Did the performance give you new insights?
These questions can be answered on the familiar 0-to-10 point scale, and combined with the familiar NPS question (Net Promoter Score) to give a meaningful picture of what each performance does for its audience. These questions offer concrete tools to make impact visible – easy to apply, across genres and audience types.
A new way of meaningful measurement
Together, the questions form a short and practical tool that helps theatres learn more about the effect of their programming. Not as a scorecard, but as a way to grow: to understand what resonates, and how to deepen that experience. The research shows that impact is not vague or abstract. On the contrary: with the right questions, you get surprisingly close to what really matters.
