Introduction

The Project on European Theatre Systems (STEP) was initiated in 2005 by the authors of this book and our colleagues in order to better understand how the organisation of theatre generates differences in theatre’s functions in different societies. Following the 2009 publication of our book Global Changes – Local Stages, the focus of our efforts to answer this question shifted towards the STEP City Project. This project concentrated on conducting detailed comparisons of similar cities to enable a holistic examination of theatre functioning. The aim of this book is to explain the underlying methods and philosophical approach of the project, and its implications for future audience research. Initial results of the project were published in 2015 in the journal Amfiteater; where some of the most remarkable, or even better the most directly visible, results were presented. Yet, these certainly did not exhaust all the possible outcomes of this international investigation.