On Theatre and Politics - Matthew Freeman

I got loaded in a hearse, when all I needed was a nurse.

Matthew Freeman is a Brooklyn based playwright with a BFA from Emerson College. His plays include THE DEATH OF KING ARTHUR, REASONS FOR MOVING, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE AMERICANS, THE WHITE SWALLOW, THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE, WHAT TO DO A GIRL, AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR, WHEN IS A CLOCK and GLEE CLUB. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to Gamespy, Complex Magazine, Bullseye, Maxim Online, and MTV Magazine.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Performance on the Web?

It seems I'll soon be involved in a nytheatrecast about "performance on the web." It's a subject I have a passing understanding of, but as I use this here computer, I thought I'd open the subject up to readers and let them guide me a bit.

Where do you find excellent "performance on the web?" What does "performance on the web" mean to you? How does it relate to theater? Is it a marketing tool, a new medium to explore? Do you listen to podcasts, download BBC radio plays, watch YouTube channels that I am unaware of that highlight opera or dance?

Comment away!

7 Comments:

Blogger rr said...

I'll be part of that podcast with you, Mr. Freeman, to talk about The Crush Project-- check it out at http://cardium.org/crush.

That's all I'll say for now; will explain more on-air.

9:57 AM  
Blogger Praxis Theatre said...

Performance on the web?

I'll take a wild stab at this. Do we agree that "performance on the web" implies performance-based art that has been designed specifically with a web-element in mind?

So it could be performance that has a web-based interactive element. Or performance that is intended to be primarily distributed through web-based channels.

Examples? Hmm. Nothing immediately springs to mind except those endless troves of made-for-YouTube clips. But is it art? Some of it, surely.

Aside from YouTube – I'm drawing a blank . . .

Seriously, treading water here . . .

Anyone else want to take a stab at performance on the web?

Ian

12:59 PM  
Anonymous Chance D. Muehleck said...

I, too, shall be taking part in said podcast (quasi-Luddite that I am). I suppose the first order of business will be to define our terms; "performance on the web" could mean many things, as Mr. praxis alludes to. Our company experimented with live webcasting on a recent show called The Attendants. Fun fun.

1:47 PM  
Blogger Freeman said...

I created, not too long ago, a few voice pieces that I posted online (I'll try to do so again...)

They were met, of course, with resounding silence. But they were, in a way, an effort to create some semblance of my work in a unique way that was downloadable. That, maybe, is a sort of performance.

The other question I have is... isn't theater fundamentally live? How can performance on the web come under the purview of theater?

4:10 PM  
Blogger rr said...

This post has been removed by the author.

4:19 PM  
Blogger rr said...

Oh, I see we'll have gads to talk about during this podcast (I was beginning to worry...).

I don't know, Matt, that we're talking about "theater" per se. And to me, that's the beauty of it-- this whole big unexplored terrain where there are neither standards nor boundaries.

Performance. It can be a very general term, no?

4:20 PM  
Blogger Johnna Adams said...

I don't know if this qualifies as "excellence" - perhaps just odd-- but some friends of mine were recently involved in a Second Life play performance. They got a theater in the Second Life game and used their avatars to perform an original play. I didn't watch it. Sort of a new play production medium, I guess.

J

10:12 AM  

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