Encyclopedia News - September 11

[Gaetan Charlebois]

Hello All

Here I am - not dead, but well-rested.

Delighted to say that even during the dog-days the traffic for the web site
has stayed high at around 10,000 per week compared to about 2,000 per week
last year at this time.

The Reviews Archive has experienced tremendous growth with over 100 reviews
for 2000 alone (surpassing the total for all of 1999). Pierre Karch, of
L'Express de Toronto becomes the first francophone reviewer to archive with
us and we're delighted to have him on board.

Two extraordinary e-mails, this summer. The first was from a well-known
actor who did not realize that his name appeared, beside his e-mail address,
on his missives. He tried to pass himself off as some person who had seen
and admired an actor (him) and wondered why he wasn't in the encyclopedia.
Although it would have been terrific to have a direct correspondance with
the actor to get his complete resume, how do you do so without making him
look and feel awful? Sadly, it's not the first (or even the 15th) time this
has happened. Another was a person who had done a search for a well-know
actor on Altavista, Yahoo or some such and had landed at the encyclopedia.
Assuming that the profile was a personal home page, they sent me a terribly
intimate letter of the variety, "Do you remember that embarassing moment in
high school..." This person I contacted before they sent me more details
than I wished to have about the actor's errant youth... BTW: I get a lot of
personal stuff this way (but not usually THAT personal...)

Big and necessary changes:

First, I am closing down two sections of the Encyclopedia which are simply
not pulling their weight: they are Thea-Tricks (effective this week) and The
National Theatre Calendar and Registry (NATHCARE) (as of June 30, 2000).
Thea-Tricks represents a considerable amount of work each week with no
participation from the outside. The traffic it generates is probably minimal
(judging from the number of times it has actually been won - even it is at
what I would consider moron level). The Calendar, on the other hand, was
included in the project to increase traffic in two ways - by being available
to the general public (which it may do) and to reach the public via the
companies which use the calendar. We had asked the 74 companies - who have,
to date, registered some 290 productions - to put one line in their programs
thanking canadiantheatre.com. Participation on their end was next to nil.
One company actually thanked the wrong web site, sending people to
canadianactor.com. Moreover, at least three companies have cancelled
productions (which means removal from the calendar, another process) and
several others have either changed e-mail addresses or don't respond to
e-mail queries about their shows (and I have to put up with the enraged
potential ticket-buyers). Let's face it - some publicists are as dumb as a
box of nails.  Too, there was no participation from Saskatchewan or the
Territories. It's disappointing, but I can't drag dinosaurs around the
tar-pits anymore - I frankly don't have the time or the patience. The
calendar represents an enormous amount of work and very little of it is fun
(and none of it pays a dime).

However, my summer also had some bright spots including the Cirque du Soleil
giving me the rights to four magnificent photos; have a look at them on a
special page:
http://www.canadiantheatre.com/c/cirquedusoleilphotos.html

Updates: ("P" indicates a photo or photos added)
Thea-Tricks; Reviews (38 added); Calendar (10 productions added); Masthead;
Documents of Interest; Teachers Guide; Heavenly Voices; Links Warehouse;
Durand, Luc (Death of); Just For Laughs; Hetherington, C. (P); Robins, B.;
Infinitheatre; Barbeau F. (P); Casabonne, J. (P); Deschamps, Y. (P);
Duceppe, M. (P); Galluccio, S. (P); Palomino, M. (P); Picard, B. (P);
Pichette, J. (P); Saia, L. (P); Crete, M. (P); Marleau, D.; Chaurette, N.;
Theatre Ubu; Mirvish, D.; Princess of Wales Theatre; Desgagnes, Y.;
Christodoulou, S.; Nadon, G.; Bechard, C.; Guerin, M.; Chasse, H.; Girard,
B.; La Rue, R.; Robitaille, P.; Vincent, I.; Levesque, D.; Lord, G.;
Barbeau, F.; Beaulieu, Michel (designer); Needles, W.; Henry, M.; Findley,
T.; Laxdal, V.; Carver, B.; Bannerman, G.; Kennedy, L.; Charlottetown
Festival; Stratford Festival; Mermaid Theatre; Lemoine, S.; Bard on the
Beach; Newton, C.; Ball, M.; Semple, G.; Laprade, L.; Farhoud, A.; Leblanc,
N.; Cone, T.; Fajrajsl, D.; Lill, W.; Fisk, M.; Mouawad, W.; Gross, P.;
Guinand, L.; Dolan, J.; Neville, J.; Alberta Theatre Projects; Glassco, B.;
Strandjofski, H.; Yiddish Theatre; Wasserman, B.; Cirque du Soleil

If you would like a copy of the entire list of profiles, I can send it to
you by e-mail.

Don't forget Heavenly Voices for your regional news, job postings or
audition calls. (http://www.canadiantheatre.com/heavenlyvoices.html)

Register your link too!
(http://www.canadiantheatre.com/links/linksguidelines.html)

Gaetan L. Charlebois (Editor, The Encyclopedia of Canadian Theatre on the
WWW) http://www.canadiantheatre.com If you want to join the Encyclopedia's
mailing list (and get information before anyone else as well as the Monday
Hint for the Thea-Tricks Doozey), simply send an e-mail to
blajeune at 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"