Last week in my post "An Expression of Civilization: Theater and Immigration Laws," I discussed how theater is being used to improve communities around the world. To discover more, I explored the blogosphere this week to find out what others are doing. The following links are all placed to the right in my LinkRoll. To begin to understand what theater is about and "how to be an actor," I suppose the first question one may have would be "How do I act?" Even though this question cannot truly be answered in one simple sentence, I stumbled upon a website that appears to be a good jumping off point. At The Applied & Interactive Theater Guide website, I found many different acting techniques, theatre techniques, as well as the history of theatre. The site is very simple and easy to navigate, however, the simplicity makes it appear to be less professional than it may be.
Similarly, The Applied & Interactive Theater Blog follows the same rather dull color palate, however writing about theater news and events around the country. While reading about what is occurring in the theater community, the C.A.T Community Actors Theatre website interested me. This theater company puts on productions written by the surrounding community--oh, and did I mention they are an all black company? By reaching out to the black neighborhood, C.A.T begins to redefine a new generation of theater. The website has a fun, funky feel to it with easy to use links. However, there appear to be misspellings and grammatical issues throughout the site.
Another theater group I found is Theatre West. The actors involved in this theater company not only act, but also teach acting workshops in multiple techniques. The homepage has numerous pictures with quotes about an actress or play and many links to informative pages. However, when I click on a link and then wanted to go back to the homepage, I found no way to click "home." It became annoying to retype the web address. Another website with many links and photographs belongs to the National Theatre in the United Kingdom. This theatre company is one of the largest and well-known companies throughout the world and their website proves it. With fourteen brightly colored links to their season of plays (picture above left), it is very easy to get lost in the website. However, it almost seems to be the point to get lost and find yourself on a page called Discover, where you can find out about their programs, plays, and backstage tours.
To find out what is happening in the art community in New York, I headed over to Gothamist: Arts and Events blog. The summaries of each post are easy to see and to read with interesting titles. However, the large and often brightly colored advertisements in the top and left margins of the page subtract from the simplicity of the blog.
The Next Stage is a fun online magazine discussing what they call "new theatre." The picture atop the page makes me laugh and pulls me into what they might have to offer. Everything is laid out neatly, making it possible for even the most internet incapable to find what they want to read. Yet, as interesting as the magazine may be, there will be random posts about unrelated topics. Something similar happens on the blog entitled, Theatre Notes. Here the author, Alisson Croggon, keeps a blog about her theatre reviews. Even though the theatre reviews are very insightful, Croggon's posts about Patti Smith do not seem to fall under theatre reviews and the copious amount of links turn me away.
At the theatre section of the Culture Monster blog, through the Los Angeles Times website, I found many posts about theater and events going on around the country. This was a great place to gain knowledge without any issues. Everything is easy to read and the writing is excellent. The only problem I had is with the categories sections; there are so many links that are in such a small text, they are difficult to read. On the other hand, the New York Times' theatre posts had no category section, only Most Popular and Critic's Picks links. The New York Times website, however, is spectacular. Not only are there interesting articles about theatre in New York, they have performance videos and audio. Everything is a bit packed in, but still easy to navigate.
There are many theater companies around the world who deal with helping children, at risk teens, families and communities. The Unusual Suspects is one. Their website has a great slideshow of people involved in their programs and photographs of their productions. However, there is so much material being presented on the homepage, I feel overwhelmed trying to take in all the information. The Creative Alternatives of New York (CANY) works as a 
therapeutic center. With a headshot and quote from Susan Sarandon, the front page is welcoming and open, giving the information in a calm way. Nonetheless, the huge red "Donate Now!" sign is extremely noticeable and detracts from the tranquil-ness of the page. ENACT is a drama therapy program which could use some help from the web designer from the CANY site. The page is laid out in a boring way with a lot of extra space not being utilized. The writing throughout the site is great, but the design could use some work. Broadway Cares is a company that is working to fight HIV/AIDS. Their website is patriotic and fun and makes me want to donate. The layout of the "important" links is easy to find and read, yet the left hand margin is packed with tiny writing and links to other information about the company. This is equally important as the donation page but is harder to find. Juxtaposing the Broadway Cares website, the Apollo Theater Foundation has enlarged every link, making everything seem of the same importance. It is vital to restore the Apollo Theater, however, the different scholarships they have for students are important to donors. I had to dig through a few pages to find out about those scholarships.
The America-Israel Cultural Foundation has a similar problem. Even though their mission may be clear, I had no idea how much they give back to the community until I happened to click on a link titled "Artists." Somehow the topics of “money” and “awards” do not seem to fit under that term. The government has also helped spread the arts. Soon after the Great Depression, Roosevelt mounted the Federal Theatre Project (above right). This website is the collection of all the plays, as well as photographs, playscripts and administrative records from these productions. The site is easy to navigate and themed appropriately. However, the way the way the information is presented is confusing and I just end up skimming over what they have written.
Some of the most interesting websites I came across talked about theater and technology. The Arts and Humanities Data Service has something they call a Digital Performance Archive, where they have performances that include various forms of technology. As interesting as it is, the search engine is difficult if you do not know what to search for. But there are a numerous amount of performances to choose to loose yourself in. Another out of the ordinary website is Teatre Virtual. Another site dealing with theater and the Internet, this website actually has "live" acting, as well as many other forms. The futuristic layout is enticing, but difficult to navigate, and the writing is hard to comprehend, since it was originally written in another language. Yet, it is still an innovative idea.
Lastly, a professor's blog entitled Theatre Ideas plays an alluring role in this search. Here the author writes on the role of theater in American society. He has book recommendations, theater quotes, posts on various actors and theater techniques. Even though his posts appear to lack order, his ideas are thought provoking.
My exploration of the web has given me a new perspective into the world of theater and its influences on society.
2 comments:
Hi Alexandra, great site, and welcome to the theatrosphere! There's certainly plenty of room. Thanks very much for the link and the compliments on The Next Stage, I think I actually blushed when I read it.
I appreciate the note about focus as well, it's great to hear opinions about the site from actual readers. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind being a bit more specific on which posts you found to be unrelated, it would be a huge help in the development of the site. My mandate is to have every post related to theatre in some way, and any notes you can offer would be an enormous help.
Thanks again, and consider the linkrolling reciprocated.
Simon.
I was impressed by all the resources you found and explained in this post. Firstly, the way you set up the post by asking a question, really was a good way to follow your exploration through the web. By posing this question, I was able to see how all of these websites and blogs connected to the overall theme of your previous posts. Your explanation of the various theater groups was well connected. The variety of different theater groups with different missions, allowed me to see the impact that they are making in all different areas in the world. I also did appreciate that not all your sources were limited to theater companies’ websites. With the variety of websites contents you have supplied, allows the reader to understand there is more in the world of theater and arts then theater groups alone. By adding an achieve to your linkroll, allows those who read your post to do some exploration themselves and I thought this was an excellent source to mention, even if it was not the best website that you had found.
In your analyzing of the blogs, I found that you spent a lot time saying if the sources were easy reads or not. Although this is helpful, I think that for some of these sources it would be good to analyzing the legitimacy of there information. In the future I think your opinion of on the activeness on some of these blogs and websites would be nice to. By adding this information, it will explain that these pages are not “lost” in the web. And if some of these websites are not getting the traffic they deserve why do you think so? I enjoyed your post and can’t wait to see what you uncover about theater world in your next post!
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