HowlRound: During my first year in Philadelphia, I was working from home. While some might consider this an enviable task, I had no connections, and no resources to test out my playwriting. I had left behind a theatre in California—a small, dirty space that served as an essential theatrical training in my impressionable younger years. Suddenly, I found myself approaching thirty with little to do. So I did what a stranger in a strange land would naturally do: I spent a lot of time on social media. And during this time, I found myself particularly drawn to Twitter.
8 comments:
Just followed @AstroJennie. Looks interesting! Looks like a good exploration in storytelling. I think this would be a great excersice for writers and dramaturgs, something that always bugs me about a play or any type of writing is when it's very unnecessarily wordy. Or when an author just tells me things instead of showing me. Using Instagram or Twitter as a playwriting platform is the perfect example of showing, not telling. Being able to figure out the key components you want to give the audience, and let them do the rest, is a really great way to create an interactive story as well. I'd love to do an epic, several minute long snapchat musical.
I really enjoyed this article. The title stood out to me, because I agree that social media plays such a big part in everyone's life now a days, that I can see the connection between Twitter and theatre. At the end the author brings up a very important point, which is that theater is story telling, and Facebook, Twitter, and all other forms of social media are a shortened way for an individual to share a story with their friends, or the world. It could range from a global even that they watch, or it could be as simple as what they ate for breakfast. I loved the idea of a play being told on Twitter, it involves a very new audience that may not consider themselves theater goers, but now became a part of an audience to a show. With the revival of this Twitter show happening soon, I will definitely be apart of the audience this time around.
I think it's particularly interesting that a medium like social media, which in the past has been criticized for shortening our attention spans and making us less able to focus, could produce a work that could actually make people invested for longer than just a few hours. This idea that the fanbase has to keep tuning in to get the full story reminded me of the recent rise of podcasts like Welcome to Nightvale, which gathered a massive following despite the fact that listeners had to wait for each episode to come out. I think the rise of the "Twitter play" is a great tool for story telling, but I also think that it has the potential to be overdone. I can think of plays that would be just as potent in this form, and some that would not. That being said, I am very excited about the future of this idea and the impact it could have on people would otherwise not attend plays. Because Twitter is much more accessible for everyone, there's no ticket charge, and you can catch up anywhere because the tweets stay online for anyone to read, anyone who has access to a computer can experience this form of theater.
My first thought was that this is very much like an interactive radio play, and there is something enchanting about thinking of it in those terms rather than as evil social media taking over the arts, or whatever other trope is often thrown around. The writer does not ever say that this is the new way of things, or that theater as we know it is gone. It's simply a different way of telling a story to an audience, born out of specific circumstances and limitations that ruled out the possibility of telling the story on a stage. It's interesting because even though the act of going to the theater is not present, this play series still requires conscious active involvement from the audience as they login to read and respond. It seems like the next step would be audience members being characters themselves, which would introduce great questions of whether it's still a "play" presented by one person with many participants, or whether it has shifted into something different that is more like roleplay.
I think the idea of a Twitter play is both extremely innovative and very interesting. Most people, upon hearing the phrase "Twitter play," would immediately roll their eyes or reply with a skeptical comment. However, the author does an excellent job at selling his argument. By the end of the article, you believe that Twitter and theatre have a ton in common and should definitely be combined. While I do not think Twitter theatre will take the world by storm any time soon, I would love to see a Twitter play.
Twitter is becoming more and more integrated it seems into entertainment. I still dont have a twitter so I dont have a lot of knowledge on it but I think it is a great way to spread the word about theatre as well as being a way to integrate theatre into our very technology filled lives. This article reminded me of a thing called "Tweet seats" which i believe has become a term used often in situations like this. I went to a concert last year at the Carnegie music hall and sat down in the normal seats. but they encouraged people to go up to the third floor "tweet seats" to discuss what they thought of the music as well as advertise the music across the internet. I think it was also a great way to get those who want to be on their phone to a place where the people who dont want them dont have to see them while they enjoy the music. I have yet to see this in a traditional theatre setting but this article seems to illustrate that dream. I think in an age where you cant stop technology from coming into the theatre you might as well integrate it and use it to your advantage. The way the article explains how twitter will illustrate a new story to audiences is truly innovative and exciting.
For the last seven years and probably more plays have incorporated twitter into their plot. Either project them on a screen, reading them a loud to the audience, or having a live twitter feed while the performance is going on and sometime gets to communicate with the performers. This seems to be a hit or miss with many productions. Never the less, it does help publicize the show the grab a larger audience. Now this is a play made specifically for twitter? That's such an interesting concept. Just thinking about it makes me feel like a cyber bully incidence where everything become more personal in the mind. That must happen for the audience watching this show. They are forced to be a part of the experience since it's a play through twitter. I just wonder how they keep this play interesting and not a cliche that may be unsuccessful in it's future runnings.
I honestly really like twitter. Yes, I am one of those people who loved to share my every thought with the world. My twitter, like many teenagers, was filled with idiotic nonsense about my day. But what I also really liked about having a twitter was being able to see instant updates of global topics. It’s surprising how much more posting about social issues happens on twitter versus facebook and even the news. The news is always extremely biased (in my opinion) and with twitter’s plethora of sources, it gave a more round view of the topics. I deleted my twitter last winter because it wasn’t very professional (ew I hate growing up), and I was also trying to get myself away from being sucked into my computer. Without my twitter, I am not as knowledgeable about large events in the world because I hate reading the news. Even though this school encourages reading sophisticated materials, I like concise information in one spot rather than searching for it.
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