Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: As entertainment creators and presenters look to grow audiences through the marriage of product and technology, consumer choice is the winner. Every day, it seems, an event or announcement heralds a new option for the quickly evolving ways we view entertainment. This month has brought a wave of news to illustrate the point.
2 comments:
This article does a great job of explaining what the creators of BroadwayHD are really about. I am the kind of person who believe that a theatre show is really best seen in real life but as the article pointed out, recording and distributing live shows can have the great benefit of being able to reach wider audiences. I think that the biggest benefit of this new technology is the ability we now have to preserve shows that will never be the same again. Iconic shows don't have to get lost in the past anymore with only tails of its existence. The fact that shows are really never the same is one thing that I love about theatre, but instead of that fact providing limitations on what a person can see on theatre, with this new technology, it gives a person the opportunity to see more. Another thing that I loved about this article is that it mentions the fact that the creators only want to preserve a show like this when there is no opportunity for it to grow in the film industry or on TV. I think that while live theatre is the best live, this technology will give us an opportunity to preserve the great art that happens everyday.
Any platform that allows for greater access to theater and entertainment is always exciting for me to hear about. I remember the initial article published about BroadwayHD and how much excitement it generated amongst the students here (myself included). It's of course important to keep audiences coming to see live theater, but as Vanessa pointed out, this technology also allows us to preserve high-quality versions of past shows that you can't go to a theater and see live anymore. The article points out that the BroadwayHD creators are definitely aware of this, and have made a point of saying this to those who may be more reluctant to pass on their rights to a production. Ultimately, their goal is to make these productions available to those who would have otherwise been unable to see them, and to encourage people to continue supporting live theater while doing so.
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