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The writer draws on personal experience to suggest that theatres, as a building type, are particularly vulnerable to ill‐advised alteration. He describes the peculiarities of design and construction which distinguish theatres from other types of public buildings and sets out a number of ways in which theatre operation can be damaged or even destroyed by seemingly unimportant interventions. The role of the Theatres Trust in protecting theatres not currently in use as such is detailed and justified, pointing out that many theatres have, in recent years, been returned to their designed use after decades in other employment. The importance, in this context (and having regard to modern theatre economics), of low‐cost reversibility is emphasised. Finally, comments drily on the psychology of theatre operators and theatre purchasers.

Assessing performance art has shifted toward an audience-centric approach, with various factors impacting audiences’ holistic experiences in a theater. Existing theater marketing research has predominantly focused on servicescapes, leaving a research gap regarding audiences’ spatial experience within theater buildings.

To address this gap, this case study collected crowdsourced data from mainstream social media platforms, including rating scores, textual reviews and reviewer-uploaded photos. The aim was to explore to what extent the theater architecture design impacted audiences’ theatrical experience. The old and new facilities of the case study theater were compared, and a series of quantitative and qualitative techniques were applied for data analysis, including statistics, content analysis, sentiment analysis and thematic analysis.

The study identified five major themes in social media review: the show, architectural design and attributes, staff and service, neighborhood and amenities, and financial consideration. Comments about theater architecture constituted a substantial portion of reviews, with seating comfort, intimacy and stage visibility being frequently discussed features. Seven subthemes related to architectural design emerged as key contributors to audiences’ spatial experiences, including aesthetics, design and spatial configuration; the bar and lobby; the new facility; seats; sets and stage; acoustics; and intimacy and atmosphere.

The study places the individual experiences of audience members as central and uses an inductive approach to analyze their self-generated data. The research results offer valuable insights into theater design and confirm the belief that architectural design has a significant impact on the overall theatrical experience of audiences.

This essay articulates the vision of a flourishing classroom, which arguably is the ultimate goal of a positive approach to management education. By demonstrating how improvisational theater is the epitome of a flourishing ensemble, this essay proposes that there are some lessons educators can glean from improvisational theater in order to achieve a flourishing classroom. The applications, benefits and challenges of applying improvisational theater in the classroom are also discussed.

This essay articulates the vision of a flourishing classroom, which arguably is the ultimate goal of a positive approach to management education. By demonstrating how improvisational theater is the epitome of a flourishing ensemble, this essay proposes that there are some lessons educators can glean from improvisational theater in order to achieve a flourishing classroom. The applications, benefits and challenges of applying improvisational theater in the classroom are also discussed.

Improvisational theatre can shed some light on teaching pedagogies within the classroom. Building trust in the classroom community, framing failure as learning opportunities, and promoting the improvisational mindset can enable students to learn better.

This essay articulates the vision of a flourishing management classroom, which arguably is the ultimate goal of a positive approach to management education. By demonstrating how improvisational theater is the epitome of a flourishing ensemble, this essay proposes that there are some lessons management educators can glean from improvisational theater in order to achieve a flourishing management classroom. The applications, benefits and challenges of applying improvisational theater in the classroom are also discussed.

The paper aims to present the importance of social relationships in cooperation among theaters in the creation of three types of values that characterize arts entrepreneurship (i.e. artistic, economic and social).

The findings are based on qualitative research with the use of 50 semi-structured interviews conducted with 57 representatives of public and private theaters in the performing arts sector in Poland.

The research shows how social relationships among cooperating representatives of theaters are used to create three types of values that characterize performing arts entrepreneurship (i.e. artistic, economic and social). The findings reveal that theater representatives take advantage of social relationships and engage in inter-organizational cooperation in introducing various changes in their institutions. Thus, by fostering innovation, risk-taking and searching for new opportunities they adapt to the dynamic environment. The paper shows how the three groups of values of performing arts entrepreneurship are interrelated but also sometimes conflicted with one another.

The research is not representative as it presents the context of the analyzed theaters in Poland.

Entrepreneurship, although a popular subject of research, has been much less frequently analyzed with regard to the creative industries, such as the performing arts. In the field of management, researchers have focused primarily on business organization entrepreneurship, excluding cultural and arts institutions such as theaters. In this context, so-called arts entrepreneurship has not yet been widely recognized. In particular, there is a lack of research showing how social relationships between cooperating partners are used in the creation of three types of values in performing arts entrepreneurship, i.e. artistic, economic and social. The article fills this gap and presents both a scientific as well as an applicative contribution.

This chapter discusses the Learning Theater, a flexible library space that permits substantial patron involvement in designing dynamic environments to meet diverse learning goals.

We use a case study method to describe and discuss the Learning Theater.

We found that many challenges associated with designing and building a radically different library space to support patron learning goals can be resolved by eliciting patron input in all phases of the process.

We offer three lessons for other libraries intent on developing dramatically new kinds of library spaces: engage the community of users early and throughout, new spaces require robust communications to convey the possible set of uses to the community, and a flexible infrastructure and a responsive staff are key to meeting demands for unanticipated uses.

Our experience in developing the Learning Theater as part of the library education program suggests that libraries can share greater control of new flexible facilities and partner in the creation of intellectual properties to make best use of those facilities in more powerful ways than has typically been done in the past.

This chapter is about quantum storytelling and improvisation and how to use quantum storytelling as an improv theater for social change. Quantum storytelling, in its fore-caring, is about producing an ethics of care where none exists. In the quantum storytelling theater for change, we envision a stage with human and non-human actors (animals, plants, quantum wave/particles) and ways to collapse waves of quantum potentiality into new possibilities for human survival, for posthumanist survival.

We will assert that this happens through improvisation: something called “quantum storytelling with improv.” Our example for this chapter is a theater company we created in Las Cruces, NM, called “Veterans Theater” in which improv is the performance approach. Boje teaches in the belly of the beast (the Business College) at New Mexico State University, a course called “Leadership Is Theater in Society” that uses improv. It is not only about improv but it is also based on Theater of the Oppressed (Boal, 1979, 2002) and Improvisation for the Theater (Spolin, 1983); it also draws from Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire, 1970) and Rules for Radicals (Alinsky, 1971), both of which call on improv as a process for social change. Improv is a vital leadership skill in complex polycultural systems, which is the future of business. Leadership theory is dead. Get over it! Or, resurrect it with improv!