Encyclopedia News; March 9, 2001

[Gaetan Charlebois]

Hello All

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...)

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).

Sermon over. (Except you might reappraise your tech-stock portfolios...)

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

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...).

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...

New Profiles:
Nakai Theatre (Company) http://www.canadiantheatre.com/n/nakaitheatre.html

Updates: (P indicates a photo has been added to the profile)
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)

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).

Register your link too (at no charge)!
(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, simply send an e-mail
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