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!
About Me
- Freeman
- 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, AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR, THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE, WHEN IS A CLOCK, GLEE CLUB, THAT OLD SOFT SHOE and BRANDYWINE DISTILLERY FIRE. He served as Assistant Producer and Senior Writer for the live webcast from Times Square on New Year's Eve 2010-2012. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to Gamespy, Premiere, Complex Magazine, Maxim Online, and MTV Magazine. His plays have been published by Playscripts, Inc., New York Theatre Experience, and Samuel French.
7 comments:
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.
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
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.
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?
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?
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
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