I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the fact that every single post I have done lately has been about theatre. Summer is a busy time for me, dramatically speaking (that is - in regards to drama… not in a dramatic tone of voice), so that’s what comes out when I open my brain.

That being said… here’s more about theatre:

For some reason, a lot of arts organizations are slow, moving into the online world. We’ll talk to you all day about Fresnels and scansion and rigging a masking flat, but blogs and html and such seem a bit of a mystery. Part of it is probably the fact that we just don’t have much money… but the fact is - that’s just not an excuse anymore. There are enough free and open-source programs out there to establish a pretty significant web presence if you really want to.

So recently, my theatre company - The Distracted Globe - has made our first steps into YouTube. What an obvious connection, you know? A lot of people - particularly comics and comedy groups - are using YouTube and similar sites to cast their chuckle net a little wider. But in addition to our performances, we’ve also started posting some clips of our rehearsals for scripted shows (currently Much Ado About Nothing) and linking to them from The Distracted Blog. At first, the actors were a little grouchy about it, but when you think about it - it’s a pretty neat tool. It gives audiences, friends, and prospective audiences and friends a little peek at the inside jokes, the real people and, most important, the process. It gives people a chance to see what goes into creating that beautiful, polished product that they see on opening night. They hear the notes from the director, they see things tried and re-tried, and they feel a little more connection and investment when they come to see how it all came together.

Arts funding and attendance have been dropping across the country - that’s no secret. So it’s becoming increasingly necessary for artists to get creative in the way we open up to and engage our audiences. We have to let them in, not hold them at an arm’s length until we’re ready for them.
Sound familiar?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 5:06 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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