‘If they can't come to you, go to them’: Pivot-Spaces and Kinesthetic Spectatorship in Back Alley Parade Performances for Young Audiences

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many theatre companies and buildings to reconsider how they approach engagement with audiences (Turner, 2021; Braidswood, 2021). Street performance became one of the go-to choices for reaching audiences and engaging them in a space that was available to practitioners. However, street performances could not guarantee reaching a large audience. Barbican Theatre Plymouth looked to challenge this by bringing a live performance to the homes of a community and young people to engage them in a theatrical event. Back alleys have been a site of historical play since the 1970s (Cowman, 2017) but this has shifted in recent decades. The question arose if this site could be reactivated as a site of play if it would reach a large audience of young people. This article looks to analyze this practice as a research project, looking at the Barbican Theatre Plymouth's second Back Alley Puppetry Parade in June 2021. Building on McKinney’s (2013) definition of a scenographic spectacle, this paper argues that the use of a pivot space became vital in establishing a different spectatorship, based on unruliness and kinesthetic experience. It generates ownership as young people choose where they would engage in the performance.