ABSTRACT
It is a common understanding that sometime during the course of thetwentieth century, the live arts lost touch with the popular or mass audience. Experts ranging from economists to market researchers to cultural historians have all documented a shift in consumer patterns as audiences in search of live entertainment moved from the concert hall and the playhouse to the arena, coffee shop, and nightclub. This shift occurred because the audience no longer has an interest in-or the intellectual capacity for or the cultural connections with-the arts. In theatres and symphony halls across America, it is said, the audience has left the building.
