2nd RFD: rec.arts.theatre.* reorganization

[Mark Kupferman]

*************************************************************
NOTE: Thanks to everyone for their patience in what seems
like a constant chain of these messages. USENET requires a
certain procedure when proposing or reorganized groups, and
part of that means that everyone who has an interest in the
group needs to have the opportunity to comment and make
suggestions.
 
The "2nd RFD" is equivlent to a second draft of the proposal,
once everyone has had a chance to submit their input.
*************************************************************
 
This is the second Request For Discussion (RFD) calling for the
reorganization of rec.arts.theatre and alt.stagecraft into
rec.arts.theatre.plays, rec.arts.theatre.musicals,
rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft, and rec.arts.theatre.misc. All four
groups will be unmoderated. This RFD contains charters for all
four groups, reasons for the reorganization, proposed general
guidelines for all four groups, and the usual distribution
information at the end.
 
Since the first RFD, this proposal has been adjusted to
reflect corrections in spelling, and a few more suggested
mailing lists have been added to the distribution list.
Discussion of the proposal has generally been limited to
yeas or nays, with very few suggested alternations.
 
- - - - - - NAMES - - - - - -
 
   To be created:
     rec.arts.theatre.musicals
     rec.arts.theatre.plays
     rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft
     rec.arts.theatre.misc To be
   superseded (eliminated, if you will)
     rec.arts.theatre
     alt.stagecraft
 
- - - - - - CHARTER - - - - - -
 
Some people really believe theater is dying. After all, hasn't it
been overrun by television, movies, and virtual reality? Aren't
those theaters that still exist struggling year in and year out
to fill the seats? Why on Earth would anyone believe that there
was enough interest in the theater to dedicate at least FOUR
newsgroups to discussion of the theater? Has someone gone INSANE?
 
Theater isn't dying. Not even close. If you check out the state
of theatre over the last three thousand years, you'll notice that
theater is actually celebrating a kind of renaissance of it's
own. There are thousands and thousands of theaters all over the
world! There are regional theaters, Broadway theaters,
summerstock theaters, community theaters, college theaters, high
school theaters, dinner theaters... Never in this century has
there been as many theaters or as many people interested in
theater as there are today. Never has there been so many people
who actually hold college degrees in theater.
 
The point is, theater today is very popular, and people like to
discuss it. And they do. As surprising as it might sound, there
is a lot of theater related traffic on the internet--both in
currently existing newsgroups and in a variety of mailing lists.
If you do a Veronica search of the word theater you'll fill up
the buffer, there are so many references. As more and more people
become involved in the internet and Usenet, they're looking for a
place to discuss and learn about things that they do off the
net.
 
- - - - - - rec.arts.theatre.musicals - - - - - -
 
In the book _Broadway_, Brook Atkinson says "From a scholarly
point of view, the musical show may be more legitimate then the
spoken drama. If the art of theater began with tribal festivals,
with singing, dancing, pantomime, mummery, and celebration in
primitive times, the musical show retains more of the original
ingredients and spirit than the spoken drama. What the spoken
drama has gained in form and mind, it has lost in scope and
variety." (1)
 
Ask anyone you meet on the street, and chances are they've heard
of _Cats_, _Phantom_of_the_Opera_, _Oklahoma!, _Hair!_,
_A_Chorus_Line_, and any of the other hundreds of musicals that
get revived time after time throughout the world. Musicals such
as _Falsettos_ and _Miss Saigon_ have helped us to deal with
contemporary issues in a way not possible in any other medium,
while other shows such as _Forever_Plaid have taken us back to
the music of our youth. In all cases, the spirited song from the
stage seems to bear a magical quality that sets our toes tapping,
our lips moving, and our hearts free.
 
Rec.arts.theatre.musicals is a new newsgroup intended to provide
a home for everyone to share their experience, ideas, thoughts,
and comments about musicals. It is a place to talk about musicals
being performed on Broadway, musicals being performed in
community theaters, musicals performed in college theaters, and
musicals being performed in community theaters.
Rec.arts.theatre.musicals is a place to discuss subsidiary issues
related to musical theater, such as cast albums and televised
performances. It is a place to talk about the actors you loved in
_______ and the actors you hated in __________. It is a place to
share gossip and tidbits about upcoming performances and a place
to ask questions about what musicals are playing where. It is a
place to ask about ticket prices.
 
- - - - - - rec.arts.theatre.plays - - - - - -
 
While musicals and operas seem to have captured part of the
limelight for the last few hundred years, plays have been
delighting audiences since thousands of years ago. Whether you're
a fan of the tragedies performed at the City Dionysus in 534 bc,
Roman fabula togatas of 150 bc, Sanskrit dramas of the fourth
century A.D., liturgical dramas of the early middle ages,
religious cycles of the fourteenth century, morality plays of the
sixteenth century, neoclassical theater, naturalistic theater, or
contemporary theater, rec.arts.theatre.plays is the place to
bring to light all of your dramaturgical questions and comments.
 
- - - - - - rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft - - - - - -
 
It was once said that the only thing you need for theater is some
actors and an audience, but the fact is we enjoy performances a
lot more when there is some kind of atmosphere and context. We've
grown used to seeing magic happen on the stage, but what it takes
to create that magic is a lot of technical knowledge that can
only serve the world better if it is distributed.
 
- - - - - - rec.arts.theatre.misc - - - - - -
 
What is the purpose of theater? What purpose is theater going to
serve in the twenty first century? Does theater need to serve a
function? What is appropriate dress to wear to the theater? How
does one go about finding a theater? How does one spell
theater/er?
 
There are a lot of questions that clearly don't fall into the
discussion of plays, the discussion of musicals, or the
discussion of stagecraft. Rec.arts.theatre.misc is a new group
intended to cover all of these issues including but not limited
to topics such as: acting, directing, theater management, design,
and stage management.
 
 
 
- - - - - - BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION- - - - - -
 
WHY SUPERSEDE REC.ARTS.THEATRE WITH REC.ARTS.THEATRE.*?
 
For a long time it has been rightly maintained that perhaps there
wasn't enough activity in rec.arts.theatre to justify the
creation of an entire hierarchy. If it works, why take the risk
of breaking it? But as USENET has expanded and as more and more
people are posting messages, many of the readers began to
acknowledge that perhaps it was time to subdivide discussion into
more manageable chunks. This isn't about "getting rid of" a
particular group any more than it is about keeping some other
group. Rather, it is about making the structure of the group
match the needs of the readers.
 
It has been suggested, for example, that people use kill files to
eliminate unwanted discussion. But the fact is, unwanted
discussion isn't the problem. It's not that people aren't
interested in a certain type of message--it's just that people
aren't interested in discussing apples an oranges at the same
time. I may not want to read about musicals when I'm
concentrating on technically related messages or issues in the
theater, but I will want to read about them before or after. I
certainly don't want to eliminate them.
 
It has also been suggested that prefixes be used to separate
different kinds of messages, both for the purposes of kill files
and for the sake of categorizing messages. This is a stopgap
measure at best. First of all, people simply don't care enough to
memorize a list of approved prefixes. Second, people don't care
enough to use prefixes. Maybe some do, but not enough to solve
the problem. Plus, I don't think anyone wants to feel that they
need to put special codes at the beginning of each of their
messages--most people just want to post. Finally, prefixes have
already been tried. It didn't work. People didn't use them. While
it is an excellent idea, it just doesn't seem to work well enough
in rec.arts.theatre to solve the problem.
 
As up to 100 message a day appear in rec.arts.theatre, it gets
harder and harder to keep up. Many people have abandoned the
newsgroup completely in favor of mailing lists that are more
focused than rec.arts.theatre, which ultimately limits the
propagation of their thoughts and comments when in fact they
could be sharing with the entire net.
 
A rec.arts.theatre hierarchy will solve many of these issues
while at the same time setting precedent for the eventual
expansion of the group as a whole. Should any topic, such as
acting for example, be popular to warrant it's own topic, it will
ultimately be easy to add it within the rec.arts.theatre
hierarchy.
 
In the end, the hierarchy proposal is the result of a lot of
discussion between many of the contributors to rec.arts.theatre.
 
WHY SUPERSEDE ALT.STAGECRAFT WITH REC.ARTS.THEATRE.STAGECRAFT?
 
Stagecraft and technical production is a legitimate part of the
theater. It is an important part of the theater. Theater today
would not be the same without it. The fact is, an awful lot of
sites don't receive alt.*, and a lot of people interested in
theater can only hear about technical discussion from friends who
happen to have access. Considering rapid expansion in all areas
of theatrical discussion on the internet, perhaps it is now time
for stagecraft to assume it's legitimate place in the Usenet
hierarchy, where it will be able to serve the most good to the
most people.
 
- - - - - - RULES - - - - - -
 
ALL FOUR GROUPS ARE UNMODERATED
 
All four newsgroups will be unmoderated, which means anyone is
free to post messages to the newsgroup. All criticism ought to be
constructive and polite, and all messages ought to be compatible
with generally accepted nettiquite. Personal messages in the
newsgroup is discouraged, although not so that it limits free and
unencumbered discussion.
 
CROSSPOSTING WITHIN REC.ARTS.THEATRE.*
 
Like other hierarchies, all of the newsgroups within the r.a.t.*
are related, yet at the same time we have to acknowledge that
they are separate groups and that there will be a tendency to
cross-post announcements between the groups. However, it is also
acknowledged that anyone capable of reading one of the four
groups will most likely know about and have access to the other
groups in the hierarchy. Therefore, we can logically conclude
that if someone isn't subscribed to all four groups it is for a
reason, and not a mischance.
 
The point is this: Consistent crossposting between all four
newsgroups ultimately defeats the purpose of having separate
newsgroups. If you have a message that is truly related to more
than one of the topics, such as a play with a lot of music or if
you are talking about how the tire rises in the Broadway
production of _Cats_, then by all means users are encouraged to
cross-post their message to more than one group. However, just
because you *really* need to know who wrote the play
_Chryseide_and_Arimand_ doesn't mean you ought to post the
message to rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft. Posters are asked to use
their own judgment regarding what ought to be discussed in more
than one group.
 
USE OF FOLLOWUP-TO: ENCOURAGED WHEN CROSSPOSTING
 
If you ARE going to crosspost between the four groups, it is
recommended that you include a "Followup-To:" expression in the
header of your message, which will ultimately point traffic
towards one group. The justification for this is because the
assumption is once again made that people will tend to read all
four of the groups and that having the same thread appear in two,
three or four newsgroups will ultimately prove annoying. Under
this method, people who do not read all four groups will at least
know the discussion is taking place and will have the option of
engaging in that discussion by joining whichever group the topic
is being followed up to. This will hopefully eliminate
superfluous net traffic.
 
- - - - - - REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD) - - - - - -
 
This RFD will be sent to the following newgroups:
 
news.announce.newgroups
news.groups
rec.arts.theatre
rec.arts.dance
rec.music.misc
alt.stagecraft
 
There are many mailing groups devoted to the discussion of
theatre. While it is acknowledged that many of the people
who have access to these groups may not have Usenet access,
the implications of this reorganization will undoubtedly
effect many if not most of the members of the below listed
groups. For that reason, copies of both the RFD and the
CFV will be sent to the following mailing lists:
 
THEATRE at GREARN.bitnet              Theater discussion list
perform-l at ACFcluster.NYU.EDU       Performance Studies List
ARTMGT-L%BINGVMB.bitnet            Arts Management Discussion
stagecraft at jaguar.cs.utah.edu      Stagecraft discussion list
comedia-l at arizvm1                  Hispanic Classic Theater
PERFORM at IUBVM                      Medieval Performing Arts
REED-L%UTORONTO                    Early English Drama
ASTR-L%UIUCVMD                     Theatre History Discussion
Asianthea-l at uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu Asian Theatre Discussion
musicals at world.std.com             Musicals Discussion
shaksper at utoronto                  Shakespeare Discussion List
candrama at unb.ca                    Canadian Theatre Research
theatre-theory at mit.edu             Acting-Movement-Voice theory
 
Followups will be directed to news.groups, as per USENET guidelines.
 
The discussion period for the reorganization in question
began on March 16, the date the inital RFD message appeared in
news.announce.newsgroups. The discussion period will end on April 7,
twenty two days after it started. A call for votes will then follow.
 
________________________________________________________________________
Mark Kupferman                              catseye at minerva.cis.yale.edu
Yale School of Drama
Yale Repertory Theatre