Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The first survey (SN:188) was carried out as an exploratory exercise at the request of the theatre management. The aim was to collect information about the audience attending the theatre over a complete season. Discovery, not hypothesis testing, was the keynote. The second survey (SN:189) complemented and extended the first and set it in an overall context of entertainment and media-usage.

Main Topics:

Attitudinal/Behavioural Questions Respondent's exposure to newspapers, television and radio. Frequency of going out: for an evening's entertainment (location), to the theatre, to the cinema. Reasons: for not going out more, for visiting/not visiting Victoria Theatre. Plays seen at the Victoria Theatre, visits to the Theatre Royal, knowledge of Stoke-on-Trent festival. Background Variables Age, sex, marital status, age finished full-time education, attendance at organised classes, occupation.

Multi-stage stratified random sample

purposive selection of wards as a first stage (4 wards in Stoke chosen to be 1 in each geographical quadrant and of heterogeneous social class; 1 ward in Newcastle) In each ward, 2 polling districts were chosen at random and systematic samples drawn from randomly chosen streets

Face-to-face interview