“The public goes to the theatre”: an action-oriented ethnography on publics in action

Abstract

Challenged by Teatro Municipal de Lisboa, independent theatre companies from Oporto were invited to organize that institution’s programming throughout a month. “The public goes to the theatre” was the ironic response of a young company from Oporto to the challenge. This project aimed to promote a performance, a folk parody excursion that would lead the provincial public of Oporto to the capital, a journey preceded by several workshops to help them familiarize with theatrical language codes. Via research-action-oriented ethnographic methods, the sociological research intended to analyze and mediate the recruited individual’s relationship with culture and theater institutions. This article draws a preliminary assessment of the project, not including the final session, a diagnosis based on the population’s representations and theater relation approach.