{"id":2000,"date":"2011-11-29T21:19:35","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T01:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.arts.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=2000"},"modified":"2011-11-29T21:19:35","modified_gmt":"2011-11-30T01:19:35","slug":"theatre-takes-on-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2011\/11\/29\/theatre-takes-on-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatre Takes On Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s a malady well-known in the undergraduate theatre community. \u00c2\u00a0It begins in late August and symptoms reoccur periodically throughout the year. \u00c2\u00a0Thankfully, there is a support network out there for those of us so afflicted by this terrible disease. \u00c2\u00a0I have been suffering from a flare-up lately. \u00c2\u00a0That&#8217;s right. \u00c2\u00a0I&#8217;m not ashamed. \u00c2\u00a0I have <strong>post-internship depression syndrome (PIDS)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Common symptoms of PIDS include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Desperately wanting to be in an office surrounded by scripts.<\/li>\n<li>A detached desperate feeling to be plugged back into the professional theatre scene.<\/li>\n<li>Missing working alongside salaried employees and bemoaning your unpaid status.<\/li>\n<li>A yearning to see the future of professional American theatre created before your very eyes.<\/li>\n<li>A slight watering at the eyes when Skyping, Facebooking, or texting former colleagues.<\/li>\n<li>Sinking of heart when reading about something awesome that is happening at your previous place of employment. \u00c2\u00a0When you&#8217;re not there.<\/li>\n<li>Constantly reaching for your phone to share nerdy news that only your co-workers could fully appreciate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The good news, if you&#8217;re afflicted with this condition, is that some of the most exciting theatre companies in America have now joined the 21st century. \u00c2\u00a0Their websites are up to date and slick. \u00c2\u00a0Their Twitters are tweeting. \u00c2\u00a0Their Facebook fan pages have photo exclusives and ticket deals.<\/p>\n<p>I do what I can to stay up to date on the conventional theatre news websites, like Playbill and Broadway.com, but for the younger, fresher, ideas, I often turn to Twitter. \u00c2\u00a0The hashtag #newplay is my best friend. \u00c2\u00a0I can follow dramaturgs who are doing the work I would love to; even LMDA (Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas) has an account. \u00c2\u00a0The national organization for professional not for profit theatre, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), live tweets their conferences and panels. \u00c2\u00a0This is an excellent way to stay up to date. \u00c2\u00a0It&#8217;s like you&#8217;re in the room with the top theatrical minds sharing in their dialogue. \u00c2\u00a0There are accounts set up exclusively to promote a new play discussion. \u00c2\u00a0The greatest thing about Twitter, as obvious as it may be, is that anyone can add into the conversation if they feel so moved. \u00c2\u00a0This often results in discussions between people who may not otherwise communicate&#8211; a writer in San Francisco and an upstart artistic director in New York, a storefront theatre in Chicago and a New York marketing director. \u00c2\u00a0There are blogs that serve this purpose as well. \u00c2\u00a0One of my favorites is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.howlround.com\/\">Howl Round<\/a>, maintained by Arena Stage.<\/p>\n<p>Today, something major happened. \u00c2\u00a0The Actors&#8217; Theatre of Louisville, an excellent non-profit theatre with one of the most impressive new play festivals in the country, appointed a new artistic director today, Les Waters, director of many young playwrights and associate director of Berkeley Repertory Theater. \u00c2\u00a0I read about this decision minutes after it was announced, thanks to Twitter. \u00c2\u00a0It then exploded all over my Twitter and Facebook newsfeeds. \u00c2\u00a0I was hearing about it from professional organizations, new play think tanks, and theatrical friends who either had worked for ATL in the past or are interested in their work. \u00c2\u00a0It&#8217;s moments like this that I&#8217;m reminded how small the theatre community is, and what a community it is. \u00c2\u00a0The excitement generated by this shift in personnel made me excited without having any personal connections to the theatre. \u00c2\u00a0The community, <strong><em>my <\/em><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">community, was buzzing. <\/span><\/strong>It&#8217;s days like this that my PIDS subsides. \u00c2\u00a0I am still at one of the best universities in the world, learning what I need to learn to permanently join the community that I so yearn for, and remain a part of that community, at least technologically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s a malady well-known in the undergraduate theatre community. \u00c2\u00a0It begins in late August and symptoms reoccur periodically throughout the year. \u00c2\u00a0Thankfully, there is a support network out there for those of us so afflicted by this terrible disease. \u00c2\u00a0I have been suffering from a flare-up lately. \u00c2\u00a0That&#8217;s right. \u00c2\u00a0I&#8217;m not ashamed. \u00c2\u00a0I have post-internship [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2002,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000\/revisions\/2002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}