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<TITLE>Encyclopedia News; March 9, 2001</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Geneva">Hello All<BR>
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Indeed, long time no hear and I apologize for that. The massive computer crash I had still sets everything back but the project advances nevertheless. The information comes whether I like it or not and the time has to be found (between re-re-re-configuring software and flus) to get it up. I finally managed to clear the huge backlog of items and articles which had been piling up since the beginning of December. Even got a new profile in! (See below...)<BR>
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Meanwhile the world goes on. A brief opinion (and those of you who have dot-com stocks might wish to turn away...): for me the recent melt-down in internet stocks is a good thing - even though it did have a direct negative effect on this project - for the simple reason that many of these companies (or wings of companies) had no idea what they were doing. The basic rule still applies to the 'net: simplify, simplify, simplify. I have visited so many internet sites that were loaded down with so many bells and whistles (signifying nothing) that it didn't take much imagination to guess where these companies were going. The internet will now, I suspect, go back to what it does best: supply information and BASIC sales service (not, as we have seen, information and sales with a computer-crashing song and dance thrown in). There are still sites I can tell you about that plod along: a music distributing company here in Montreal still has a site where, if you have a smaller (ie: iMac) screen you have to drag the browser window off the screen to see it all; am I going to bother with that kind of rigmarole? And is it a surprise that the company has just announced that sales are poor and that the site is not working nearly as well as they expected? Another major news and information site is so loaded down with deadlinks you want to scream. Even one of the net firms I work for (funded by a huge company), when told that, on several occasions, all the links from their home page were dead said to me, "Oh! That happens a lot!" like this was some kind of song of spring instead of a death knell for the site. (Let me tell you, I am taking the money and running from this crashing gravy train...) Dot-coms have melted down because the average user knows the difference between good and bad and the average COO doesn't and therefore doesn't know who to hire among the geniuses and charlatans who populate the web-design world. The cream will rise to the top, over the next year I think, and you will see more and more sites which are informative, elegant and unbusy (in terms of their design), which will become very busy (in terms of their traffic). One thing is clear: the web, as an essential tool, is here to stay. The mountains of mail I get tell me this and the ever-growing traffic the site receives proves it (canadiantheatre.com's traffic has grown a staggering 1000% since it was launched). <BR>
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Sermon over. (Except you might reappraise your tech-stock portfolios...)<BR>
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Meanwhile, we would like to welcome three new critics to the archives' fold. Gaspare Borsellino of CKUT radio in Montreal, Robin Breon, a free-lancer in Toronto (Canadian Theatre Review, Theatrum, among others), and Andrew Soren, who will be filing reviews exclusive to candiantheatre.com from Halifax. Many of the reviews you can now pick up in our archives cannot be read anywhere else and a pretty complete picture of the nation's theatre is being painted here. You can read FOUR different takes on the Ouzounian/Norman/Shields musical "Larry's Party", four of Ronnie Burkett's "Happy", and three on Morris Panych's new work, "Earshot." Come and browse. We've also added a new link which takes you directly to the reviews of the last week or so from the Reviews home page. http://www.canadiantheatre.com/reviews.html <BR>
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I am asked, from time to time, why there are fewer profiles going up now then when the encyclopedia started up. I have taken as a philosophy, for the project, that keeping the present 1200+ profiles updated is of higher priority than throwing in new ones. This has the added attraction of giving me a chance to sit back and appraise a new possible profile before pitching it in. The passage of time can make a person's career/biography seem integral to the history of the nation's theatre (or sometimes, and to be frank, seem too slight at this point to merit inclusion). The general rule of thumb, now, is: if I can link the person's bio to four other profiles, it probably merits inclusion (this doesn't sound very scientific but it works for me...).<BR>
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One of the things that makes this job very interesting is when a pratitioner contacts me about their profile. I am constantly amazed by the graciousness and politeness of Canadian artists, even when they are drawing my attention to a mistake in their bio or asking that it be updated. You see, they ask. They don't demand. We truly lead the world in hiding our light under a bushel. What's also interesting is that these people contact me from all over the world (recently from homes in the US and UK); the word about the project gets out...<BR>
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New Profiles:<BR>
Nakai Theatre (Company) http://www.canadiantheatre.com/n/nakaitheatre.html<BR>
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Updates: (P indicates a photo has been added to the profile)<BR>
Waxman, Al, death of; Other Sections; Sources; Reviews (60 added); Calendar (3 productions added); Links; Masthead; Glass, J.; Anglin, A.; Breon, R.; Reid, K.; Reeves, K.; Ouimette, S.; McCamus, T.; Bedford, B.; da da kamera; MacIvor, D.; McKim, A.; Hetherington, C.; Prairie, L.; Theatre des Varietes; Gaucher, D.; Pelletier, G.; Dussault, L.; Cyr, R; Pichette, J.; Collin, P.; Danis, D.; Accolas, C.; Gascon, G.; Hlady, G.; Marleau, D.; Mawson, M.; playRites; Gault, C.; Chambers, R.; MacLeod, J.; Spoken Word; Phillips, R.; Shields, C.; Carver, B.; Ouzounian, R.; Stratford Festival; Atienza, E.; Hutt, W.; Galloway, P.; Pennell, N.; Gascon, J.; Chasse, H.; Bergeron, A.; Lachapelle, A.; Denoncourt, S.; Young, D.; Rose, R.; Peterson, E.; Thomson, R.; Smits, S.; National Arts Centre; Brassard, A.; Kareda, U.; Necessary Angel; Hirsch, J.; Hayes, E.; Glass, J.; Theatre Network; Joudry, P.; Poissant, C.; Poirier, G.; Girard, B.; Feminist Theatre; Tifo, M.; Nolin, P.; Pintal, L.; Lalonde, R.; Renaud, G.; Canadian Stage; Musical Theatre; Aboriginal Theatre; McCall, G.; Tweed, T.; "Vigil" (P); Panych, M. (P); Northern Theatre (P); Centre for Indigenous Theatre; Sprung, G.; Wetherall, J.; LePage, S.; Essiembre, P.; One Yellow Rabbit; Dube, M.; Needles, W.; Drapeau, S.; Lebeau, P.; Chasse, H.; Rainville, F.; Shatner, W.; "Tit-Coq"; Deagon, A. (P); Lamotte, K.; Coghill, J.; McKenna, S.; Mezon, J.; Ouimette, S.; McCamus, T.; Panych, M.; Hart House Theatre; Lantagne, S.; Drapeau, S.; de Andrea, G.; Sorgini, L.; Yaroshevskaya, K.; Frechette, C.; Beaulne, M.; Ronfard, A.; Leger, V.; Arcand, G.; Martel, J.; Durand, L.; Pallascio, A.; Hausvater, A.; Gaboriau, L.; Reeves, K. (P); Mighton, J. (P); "The Crackwalker" (P); Thompson, J. (P); Charlebois, M. (P); Coquereau, P. (P); Danis, D. (P) <BR>
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If you would like a copy of the entire list of profiles, I can send it to you by e-mail (there is no charge for this service).<BR>
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Register your link too (at no charge)! (http://www.canadiantheatre.com/links/linksguidelines.html)<BR>
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Gaetan L. Charlebois (Editor, The Encyclopedia of Canadian Theatre on the WWW) http://www.canadiantheatre.com <BR>
If you want to join the Encyclopedia's mailing list, simply send an e-mail to blajeune@total.net with the subject heading "Mailing list"; if you wish to be removed from this mailing list, simply reply to this e-mail with the subject heading: "Remove"</FONT>
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