“What if the audience asks for anything?”… Globe’s tour and back-end control of audience-choice programmes

– Selective participation and back-end risk hedging, through Shakespeare’s Globe in 2018

Author: EVENTODIT Editorial Team
Published: 2026-10-26T11:13:46+09:00
Updated: 2026-10-27T01:45:00Z
Original URL: https://eventodit.com/en/stories/globe-2018-audience-choice-prepared-repertoire.html

Practical summary

Event overview: Shakespeare’s Globe Audience Choice, 2018 touring report and advertised Singapore performances on 22 September

Key decision: Confirm that every offered result can be performed before inviting an audience vote.

Responsible roles / intended readers: Theatre and festival programme and production teams

Record / next task: Performers, props, audio and conditions for each option, with the announced voting rules

Basis of information: Globe’s 2018 annual report confirms the touring format; ABA’s Singapore announcement establishes advertised arrangements, not individual results.

Editorial review: 2026-10-26

Audience-participation programmes that break down the boundary between stage and auditorium have moved beyond a trend to become an essential element of event production. On its 2018 tour, the UK’s Shakespeare’s Globe introduced the striking Audience Choice format: spectators voted just before curtain-up to decide which play would be performed that day.

An audience vote immediately before the performance creates enormous immediacy and tension. From a planner’s perspective, however, that tension needs to originate in a thoroughly controlled back end, rather than on stage. As the participation-programme principles in the **“Case Article Review”** file also explain, successful audience participation needs to operate within the multiple-choice options the planning team has completely prepared, rather than unlimited improvisation, to prevent serious stage incidents.

1. Controlled options: the difference between multiple-choice and open-ended questions

The most dangerous mistake a planner can make is to hand the audience an open-ended choice.

- **Prepare a limited repertoire**: Globe’s advance guidance did not let the audience request any play it wanted. Spectators could choose only from three multiple-choice options that eight actors had prepared in advance: Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew. What is handed to the audience needs to be decision-making power within a safe boundary whose execution the organiser has already guaranteed 100%, rather than an uncontrollable invitation to “say anything.”

2. Multi-standby: “Preparing three options means three times the cost”

The audience selects one play, but the production team needs to keep all three ready to go on immediately.

- **Decouple back-end resources**: If the sound director is hurriedly looking for a cue-sheet file or the stage team is fetching props from storage once a particular option is selected, the performance has already failed. During the dry run, the planning team needs to set up the prop-placement routes, audio-file mapping and lighting cue numbers for all three options independently, and willingly pay for a multi-standby budget that allows an immediate, zero-delay changeover whatever the result. Substantial failover preparation by the production team must come before the audience’s spontaneity can be staged.

3. Agree and sign off the counting method in advance

Conducting a vote among hundreds of spectators immediately before curtain-up and confirming the result requires a high level of quick thinking.

- **Clarify the decision criteria**: At the Singapore performances, Globe invited spectators to vote by raising their hands and shouting or cheering. The most dangerous variable is what to do if there is a tie or the cheers sound equally loud. To keep the voting host from becoming flustered on stage, a clear back-end rule set needs to be handed over in advance: for example, “If the cheers are similar, always choose option A,” or “Display an on-site decibel meter on screen and decide by the numerical reading.” This protects the host’s authority on stage.

4. A four-stage protocol for an audience-choice stage

When planning a programme that connects the audience’s real-time votes or choices to stage production, the practical team needs the following four stages.

| Stage | Working standard |
| --- | --- |
| **[Stage 1: Confirm closed options]** | Confirm two or three options in advance, and manage expectations by clearly announcing at booking or through social media that the choice will be limited to those options. |
| **[Stage 2: Map the hardware for multiple options]** | Map separate cue-sheet folders for options A, B and C to shortcuts on the sound and video consoles, and rehearse a standby environment that can send out any selected result within five seconds. |
| **[Stage 3: Set voting and tie-breaking rules]** | Simulate the voting method, whether smartphone QR voting, cheers measured in decibels or raised seat-colour cards, and give the host a predetermined decision script to use when the result is ambiguous. |
| **[Stage 4: Check accessibility and prevent exclusion]** | Provide alternative ways to express a vote, such as assistance from dedicated staff, so that spectators with reduced mobility who find it difficult to shout or raise their hands, and deaf or hard-of-hearing spectators, can participate without difficulty. |

Planner’s note: perfect improvisation is born from the most calculated scenario

The audience cheers at the magic of seeing its choices accepted in real time on stage. For the planner, however, there are no miracles on stage.

The scene that looks like exciting improvisation to spectators is the result of the planner working through the night to prepare cue sheets for options two and three, then coordinating dozens of times with the lighting team. Successful, thrilling audience participation is possible only on the most carefully calculated and robust safety net the planner has put in place beforehand, so that no unexpected variable can bring the site down.

Application conditions

Use where the company can prepare several options and start the chosen production after the decision.

Unconfirmed information

Singapore’s winning plays, tie procedures, assessment of cheering, voting duration, extra production cost and satisfaction were not verified.

Sources

Shakespeare’s Globe 2018 annual report, printed pages 3 and 7: audience choice on tour
https://cdn.shakespearesglobe.com/uploads/2019/11/Stat-Accounts-2018-web.pdf

ABA Productions: advertised Singapore Audience Choice arrangements in 2018
https://www.aba-productions.com.sg/en/shows/2018/show_AC.asp