Caught in the Theatre Nets - Parts 2

One of the most wonderful things about starting a blog, is the little community that you set up through the so-called blog-o-sphere.

You will see on the right hand side of my page, a link to a few theatre based blogs that I go to. Most of them are Australian based, but there's a couple from the UK and one in the US. I owe Theatre Notes a lot of the credit for networking me in with the small community that are blogging about theatre in their respective towns.

This whole exercise has added a whole new dimension to the dialogue that has traditionally occurred within our local communities. Suddenly, the dialogue of theatre is happening in a more international framework and is opening up people that would usually keep their ideas and opinions to the dark corner of a pub out into the public sphere.

Since starting Arts Journalist, I have struggled with finding the right tone for my opinions. I am still struggling because a blog is a personal diary, a personal reflection that ones see fit to share with those that care to log in. But it I am getting closer and closer and the journey has only just begun.

It is quite different to the mass media instrument of going to print or broadcasting through the mainstream. You are your own editor and journalist and copy editor and sub editor and investigator.

The immediacy of rebuttal and comment suddenly lifts my personal thoughts and the public dialogue begins. I certainly have not reached the level of debate that I wish to see happening online, but slowly that is occurring and the community is slowly becoming aware of this new dimension to arts debate.

What has amazingly increased is the number of personal email responses I get, and an ever increasing traffic that is uniquely international. It would be true to say that most people log in from Sydney, but there is heavy traffic from Victoria and Queensland and more recently the other states in Australia. But so many regular visitors are hosted in Canada, the US, the UK, Slovenia, China and most surprisingly France & Germany.

One couldn't say that the first three months of Arts Journalist blogging haven't been contentious. But the real feedback I get is on the street. People I run into that have logged in and mentioned this, that or the other. If only I could could get them to leave their opinion, anonymous or otherwise, and get amongst the fray. But it is all new and sometimes you like to sit back and see where it heads without getting involved.

I can relate to that feeling and it has most recently occurred while I read a seven part installment by a dear friend of mine who reflected on a theatre experience he had while he was 25 and living in London. And over the course of a week, he published his reflection while a small band of us waited each day in the most eager anticipation for each installment.

It is seven chapters of beautiful writing that would make any theatre person crumble at the knees and make them remember the very earliest love and passion they have for this beautiful artform we have.

It made me take stock, and three months into my blog experiment forced me to remember the very reason I got involved with the theatre in the first place. I recalled those earliest times while studying theatre. I remembered the shows I first saw that changed my perspective. I remembered the simple and delicate beauty that theatre can bring to a society and the importance it has within our self made complications.

Have a look if you will.... the first installment starts here.... then go to the homepage and follow your nose from there...


Image: Epidaurus