"Thoroughly grounded in developments in cultural and performance studies. . . . By focusing on [National Theatre Wales], Sedgman also opens up rich avenues for thinking about how theatre-going intersects with community, place and local and national identity. . . . Her two site-specific case studies are fascinating. . . . Sedgman is good at simultaneously unpacking what people are saying and how they are saying it, considering the cultural capital of her respondents."

Times Literary Supplement

"An engaging and accessible introduction to both the theoretical and practical questions surrounding cultural value, measurement, audiences, and theatre, the book will interest a range of humanities and social science scholars."

New Books Network

"Locating the Audience seeks to open up wider questions about perceptions of participation, of place in performance and of who gets to speak of cultural value, on what terms, and with what authority or confidence. . . . Sedgman makes a useful challenge to discussions around the politics of community theatre, attentive to variations of response and differences within audiences. . . . Whet[s] an appetite for the discursive analysis arising from the case-study productions, which is especially rewarding. . . . Nuance and reflexivity are strengths of this work."

Studies in Theatre and Performance

"[Sedgman] grapples closely with arguments about national identity that have material consequences in a competitive arts-funding environment, with finely tuned (and finely theorized) reporting that yields fresh insights after Loren Kruger’s work on national theatres. By beginning with 558 post-show questionnaires and following up a year later with twenty-two phone interviews, Sedgman illustrates how cultural value emerges as a process over time rather than at a fixed point."

Theatre Journal