Beyond the Spotlight: Co-Designing AI for Theatre Audience Communication

Paper Title

Beyond the Spotlight: Co-Designing AI for Theatre Audience Communication

Publication Info

• Topic area: AI design for theatre marketing and communication workflows.
• Keywords: AI in cultural institutions, theatre marketing, audience segmentation, donor identification, co-design, Value Sensitive Design, Reflexive Thematic Analysis, CRM systems, actionable insights, interpretability.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Existing AI research focuses on artistic creation rather than supporting the organisational practices of theatres, such as marketing and audience communication. Current CRM systems offer limited support for creative and relational aspects of communication workflows.
• Significance: Addressing this gap is critical for the sustainability of smaller theatres, which rely on effective audience engagement and donor relations to survive in increasingly complex digital ecosystems.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research has explored AI in artistic production and audience experience but has largely overlooked organisational practices. Value Sensitive Design and Reflexive Thematic Analysis have been used in other creative domains, but their application to theatre marketing remains underexplored.

Solution

• Proposed approach: Co-designing AI systems tailored to theatre marketing and communication workflows, focusing on augmenting staff capabilities rather than replacing them.
• Novelty:
  1. Systematic identification of values and needs of theatre marketing professionals.
  2. Development of guiding principles for AI design in cultural contexts.
  3. Presentation of two hypothetical AI systems for audience segmentation and donor identification.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted a co-design workshop with eight staff members from Perth Theatre and Concert Hall.
  • Applied Reflexive Thematic Analysis to identify themes from workshop discussions and artifacts.
  • Synthesized findings into actionable design principles.
  • Proposed AI system concepts based on clustering and predictive modeling.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Identified five major themes: workload constraints, granularity of audience understanding, effective audience interaction, opportunities for data-driven insights, and mistrust of AI.
  • Proposed guiding principles emphasizing workload relief, accuracy, adaptive granularity, inclusivity, data clarity, actionable insights, and transparency.
• Advantage over baselines: Unlike existing CRM systems, the proposed AI systems focus on creative and relational aspects of communication, provide granular audience insights, and integrate seamlessly into workflows.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Co-design workshop with eight participants from a single theatre team.
  • Reflexive Thematic Analysis of workshop data and artifacts.
  • Hypothetical system concepts illustrating practical application of principles.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Findings are based on a single theatre team, limiting generalizability.
  • AI system concepts remain hypothetical; real-world implementation and evaluation are needed.
  • Future research should explore diverse cultural organisations and refine principles for broader applicability.

Summary

This paper addresses the gap in AI research for theatre marketing and communication by identifying the values and needs of professionals in this domain. Through a co-design workshop and Reflexive Thematic Analysis, the study developed guiding principles for AI systems that support organisational practices while respecting cultural sector constraints. Two hypothetical systems—an audience segmentation tool and a donor identification tool—illustrate how these principles can be operationalized. The findings contribute to the design of AI that enhances workflows, promotes transparency, and aligns with the values of cultural institutions, offering a foundation for future research and practical implementation.