Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2026 - CA 357W D100

Context II (3)

Class Number: 4289

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 5 – Apr 10, 2026: Mon, 9:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
    GOLDCORP

  • Prerequisites:

    CA 257W.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

The second of two courses in the Context cluster. Work will include reading, writing and experiments in live performance creation. With a grounding in performance studies, this course offers a variety of frameworks and approaches to the histories and theories of the avant-garde. live art, and theatre. With a new topic each term, students develop skills for analyzing, researching, and writing about contemporary performance. Writing/Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

Audiences and Audiencing in Contemporary Performance

In 2011, the experimental Belgian company Ontroered Goed, who describe their practice as “making interactive theatre for people who don't especially like interactive theatre,” premiered Audience at the Edinburgh Fringe. In the controversial and divisive show, individual audience members are successively singled out through live camera feeds, their faces projected onto a giant screen as they are alternately provoked, cajoled, and shamed in front of their fellow spectators. In 2025, the company returned to the Fringe with Thanks for Being Here, a work that uses the same technical set-up and premise, but this time to earnestly and sincerely thank their audience for showing up. Using these two works as bookends, this course examines the role of audiences and audiencing in contemporary performance. Drawing from different histories and theories of theatre audiences and performance spectatorship, we will apply these readings to a range of works and audience frameworks: audiences as performance content; immersive and site-specific audiencing; one-on-one audiencing; ambulatory audiencing; distanced and online audiencing; and audience participation in gamified performance. Through in-class writing, studio improvisation exercises, devised (and revised) performance blueprints, and other assignments, students will also be encouraged to reflect on the different audiences for their own work.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

  • To understand key concepts in the history of theatre audiences and the theory of performance spectatorship
  • To analyze the function, importance, and limits of audience participation in different contemporary performance contexts
  • To reflect critically on the audiences for students’ writing and performance practices

Grading

REQUIREMENTS:

SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Audience Contract: Attendance/Participation/Showing Up        15%
Cumulative In-Class Writing                                                           20%
Draft Audiencing Blueprint                                                              15%
Revised Audiencing Blueprint                                                          20%
Group Audiencing Event                                                                   20%
Audience Letter                                                                                 10%
Ungraded Exit Interview                                                                  0%

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

It is recommended that students purchase a notebook/journal with lined pages for this course.

REQUIRED READING:

Selected pdf readings will be posted to Canvas.

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.

To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit: 


RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.