www.broadwayworld.com: "Since 2011, we've been asking all stake-holders of the Broadway ecosystem to question, 'What's the best Broadway can be?' And, while we all wish the answer was just even open, this will be a watershed moment for the community to address this mission-critical question with even greater urgency, immediacy and, well, hope for the future," says TEDxBroadway Co-Founder Damian Bazadona of Situation.
8 comments:
I think this will be a very important year to hold this kind of event. A couple of years ago I had a phase where I loved TED talks. I think it's so fascinating to watch experts talk about what they do and have learned, and you could find one on basically any topic. Even though the ticket is a bit expensive for me, I would love to hear what folks currently working on Broadway have to say about how opening up shows again would work, the response to online theatre, and how theatre can become more accessible after the success on National Theater At Home and Hamilton on Disney+. I do hope, though, that there are more speakers than the ones listed. Most of them seemed to be producers, and I feel like hearing from designers, actors, writers, and technicians would be much more interesting, since they are the ones involved in theatre from the first to last day.
I really love that the theater community has taken a second to make an event such as this one happen. Especially now, knowing that artists collaborate to create something and will continue to do so is crucial. I have always been a huge advocate for TedTalks – I find them fascinating and quite enjoyable to watch, since the experts are often quite passionate of their presentation. It brings me a lot of excitement not only that this event exists in general (this is new knowledge for me) but that it will take place anyway in spite of the restrictions. As with most things nowadays, I think this is a great step – though taken out of need rather than want – towards making theater accessible to more people. The event looks like a great introduction to the industry; it was very interesting reading what some of the speakers have accomplished with their careers.
I really love that the theater community has taken a second to make an event such as this one happen. Especially now, knowing that artists collaborate to create something and will continue to do so is crucial. I have always been a huge advocate for TedTalks – I find them fascinating and quite enjoyable to watch, since the experts are often quite passionate of their presentation. It brings me a lot of excitement not only that this event exists in general (this is new knowledge for me) but that it will take place anyway in spite of the restrictions. As with most things nowadays, I think this is a great step – though taken out of need rather than want – towards making theater accessible to more people. The event looks like a great introduction to the industry; it was very interesting reading what some of the speakers have accomplished with their careers. (Sorry for the duplicate comment)
I agree with Jem that this event is extremely important to be having right now. Jem points out the price of the ticket and I don’t know if it is that expensive. I guess 40 dollars for all these speakers is a lot of money but it is a lot of speakers and thinking that people who normally go would have to pay for plane tickets and hotel rooms and meal costs, this event is relatively cheap. I think it important for theatre to be making money even in a virtual space. Sooner or later digital events will fall into the newspaper problem were theaters haven’t charged anything and so people expect to get the virtual events for free just like newspapers have experienced huge finical issues because they started having a digital space without a paywall and now they are trying to have a paywall, customers get upset. I love the idea of paying 100 dollars to help cover the costs and subsidize other tickets. This is a smart model that I’ve seen with some books where you can pay more money and help give away free books. One thing that I will be interested to see is how speakers respond to the WeeSeeWAT movement. Will producers respond or will the ignore it like the Broadway League has?
I actually haven’t heard of TedXBroadway before! It sounds like something very much my speed with the Ted Talk + Theatre combination. TedXBroadway promises to showcase talks with speakers with varying ideas on the entertainment and the culture of Broadway and the industry. Hearing that they’ll be holding a virtual event this year is a delight and I’ll definitely be checking it out. What particularly interested me was the breadth of what the leadership board has to offer. The leadership board is surprisingly inclusive and broad and has many different outlooks on Broadway, ranging from Mark Fisher, the “de facto fitness destination for Broadway actors” to Arvind Ethan David, the lead producer of Jagged Little Pill (one of the best shows I’ve ever seen) whom was also noted as one of the only lead producers of color on Broadway in the 2019-2020 season. While the event is $40, it is definitely something piquing my interest and is something I will be considering spending on come November.
I am excited for, and most likely going to try attending, the TEDxBroadway virtual event. Last year for my writing class, I had to watch a handful of TED talk videos for research and ever since, they have been appearing in my YouTube recommended section. Some days I will just binge watch lectures on random topics, so I think this exposure for Broadway to be seen on a wider platform with a newer or typically different target audience is great. Normally these large virtual events do not turn out how we imagine them but TEDx has been producing videos of their in person content for years now. I am assuming because of this, it will run smoother and hopefully work out the way they want it to. The amount of speakers with different backgrounds is going to provide individual perspectives and I cannot wait for the rest of the roster to be released.
I was not aware that such an event like this existed and I'm hoping that I will be able to catch some of this event. An event like this is so important to have during this time and I'm glad to see they are continuing to have it. I hope that like a lot of TedTalks, these videos also become available later for other people to pursue if they cannot make the event. I hope that this event is focused on successful efforts that people have had in creating theater in this time, and also future applications of what is being done as well. I am curious to how much information the audience will be getting during this event, as it says to only be two hours. The price tag of this event is quite something, and it might not be something that people would want to spend money on currently (and also the short t, but I do like they are creating a fund to help subsidize tickets for others.
For a few years now, TED talks have almost been a go-to for anybody that wants an easy way to learn about and get new perspectives on, well, anything. Having such a wide range of speakers from so many different backgrounds within the context of Broadway really allows so many different voices to be shared and heard in a time when we would've heard much less about them then we might have in a regular theatre season. Many of the above comments have shared thoughts on the price being a bit steep and, while I think it is true in some sense, the ability for some to purchase a more expensive ticket to help subsidize others is a fantastic idea, in my opinion. We all know people who were affected badly by the past few months, but we also know people that are doing well, so it's nice to see a direct option for the latter to help the former.
Post a Comment