AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

This master thesis shows the research on what is ‘theatre experience’ and the development of the ‘total theatre experience evaluation tool’. The aim for the project was to research the experience of visitors in theatres and communicate this knowledge towards theatre directors. The project consisted out of 2 phases; the research phase and the design phase. In the research phase a customer journey of a visit in theatre is created, based on interviews with experts (theatre-directors). By doing literature research existing knowledge on user experience and theatre experience could be placed in this customer journey. One of the main findings was that the experience of the theatre visitor consisted out of two levels; (1) the performance –experience (experience related to the performance) and (2) the theatre-experience (experience related to the theatre it self). The overview of existing knowledge showed that there was a knowledge gab on the theatre-experience. What actually happens during a visit and how does this contribute to the experience of the performance, the experience of the theatre and the experience as a whole (the total theatre experience)? By doing observations in different theatres different elements influencing the total theatre experience were found. By doing user studies (emotion capture study) there was found how visitors experience a theatre visit. These studies resulted in ‘total theatre experience insights’, insights from the perspective of the user which summarize the most important findings. The design phase resulted in an evaluation method for theatre directors to evaluate their theatre on the provided experience. For this evaluation session an evaluation tool is developed. With this tool the theatre-directors are able to evaluate their theatre for every step of the theatre customer journey on both experience levels (performance- and theatre-experience).