Audience Taste in Best-Selling Plays in 2010s Iran (Dimensions, Components, Causes, and Factors)

Many plays had high sales figures in Iran in the 2010s. This article aims to investigate the dimensions and components of the audience's taste in such plays and the factors leading to such a taste. To achieve the research objectives, the study used semi-structured interviews with 12 experts, whose number was determined based on "chain sampling" and "theoretical saturation index". Meanwhile, "perpetual comparison” of findings was used for the formulation and explanation of categories and subcategories. According to the research results, elements contributing to the higher sales of plays in the 2010s can be categorized into two categories, namely elements within the play (such as acting, directing, music, script, and genre) and elements outside the play (advertising, venue, and time of performance). Some of the main features of best-selling plays in Iran are celebrity-orientation, striving for dramaturgy, contemporization and Iranianization of famous Western plays, use of (live) music, and huge scenic designs. Furthermore, managerial-political (especially spontaneous formation of private theater), socio-cultural, economic, artistic and technological-media factors have been effective in shaping the special taste of the Iranian theater audience in the 2010s, which can be semantically regulated through the concept of "Luxury Viewing Form”.