State of theatre audience in Kampala: Bat Valley Theatre as a case study

Abstract

Focusing on Bat Valley Theatre in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, this study examines the state of theatre audiences in Kampala. It defines theatre in Uganda and its nature. Tracing the history of Ugandan theatre, we realised it is heavily influenced by social occurrences. This study also explores the factors responsible for the nature of the audience in Bat Valley Theatre. Bat Valley Theatre is home to one of the biggest theatre groups in Uganda known as Afri Talent. This dissertation provides insights into how the audience responds to performances staged at Bat Valley Theatre. This research addresses the cause of the decline of the audience in theatre in Kampala, focusing on Bat Valley Theatre. The study explores why the audience numbers are declining from the times when there were shows like, ‘Ndiwulila’ by the Bakayimbira Drama Actors which was very famous in the 80’s and the 90’s in Ugandan theatres and drew in large audiences. The findings in this study shed light on the factors responsible for the decline in theatre audiences. The data for this study was gathered through descriptive methods. We conducted interviews with audience members, theatre practitioners, and Bat Valley Theatre management. Through these interviews, we collected information from the respondents about their theatrical involvement, experiences, and opinions about Bat Valley Theatre. We also collected data through participant observation. We attended shows at Bat Valley Theatre during the week and on weekends to compare the audience turnout on the different days. This helped us to assess some of the causes of the difference in audience turnout on the different days of the week. Attending these shows also helped us to determine the kind of theatre produced at Bat Valley Theatre. Secondary data was collected from journals, newspaper articles, and books to gather historical facts about theatre in Kampala in the 70s, 80s, 90s and early 2000s. previous years. This helped us to gain grounds for comparison between theatre today and the theatre from the late 20th century and early 21st century in Kampala. Our major discovery was that theatre audiences have significantly declined in Kampala. This has been majorly attributed to the poor quality of plays being produced in the Kampala theatres, competition from other forms of entertainment like film, social media and comedy, the poor economy of the country and many other factors.