Ways of Viewing: A Cognitive and Neuroscientific Investigation and Analysis of Theatre Spectatorship

The intention of this investigation is to arrive at a greater understanding of spectatorship within the environment of the theatre. This thesis will use recent discoveries in neuroscience to unveil the processing of information in a spectator’s brain; in particular the neural processing system for goal related actions. This thesis will use a theory of cognition to investigate how the mind of the spectator works in order to understand theatre and negotiate with the performance. By combining the fields of theatre, cognition and neuroscience, this thesis intends to generate more knowledge of the mental experience of the spectator and the mechanisms that enable spectatorship to occur.