Comments on: Bulletin of Plays and Drama Workshops 12/11/07!!

By: Emmet

Emmet — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:35:12 +0000

Hey, Marcus,
Sorry I haven’t had the chance to respond sooner. I appreciate you taking the time to detail your motivation and rationale.
Having taken on board your comments, I can see why you’re posting the bulletins and see a value in doing that. I think however it might be worth considering separating them out from each other. You could have a reasonably succinct editorialised overview of the theatre happenings and events for the general public. And in addition to this have the more detailed workshops and events postings targeted at actors.

By bundling the two together, I think it makes the information less accessible for non-actors. Anyway, it’s just my opinion, and I wont be in the least bit offended if you’re perfectly happy with what you’re doing at the moment, and choose to continue doing it.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 22:01:02 +0000

As you say Em, unfortunately, the target of a bulletin of plays in Ireland is considered a ’small niche’. As Frank says in his message, this is actually a newsletter that goes to a lot of people from all walks of life, the only thing they all share is the fact they like to go to the theatre every now and then. I would like to imagine that most people out there might be interested in going to the theatre every now and then. That’s why I was happy to accept Frank’s invitation to post the bulletin in this blog. I think that theatre is an art form in Ireland extremely underpreciated, and the numbers of theatre goers are not many. This is bulletin is my small contribution towards a broadening of this small public.

I have another newsletter which I send to actors. There I include notices of workshops and auditions and castings. I also post that in Biffsniff, since Frank asked me to. I do understand that those bulletins in particular might be too specific. Maybe I should talk to Frank and arrange something different for those. Sometimes, like in the case of this last bulletin here that you read, I merge the information when there’s only a few notices for each of the two bulletins separately.

I hope this is useful, and thanks for your comments.

By: Emmet

Emmet — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:32:25 +0000

Yeah, it came across as more of a rant than I intended, but I’d still stand by the gist of what I said.
I really don’t have a problem with local niche content, it’s just the format that I think is inappropriate for this blog.

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:25:42 +0000

Hey Em,
I invited Marcus to post the bulletins here - it is indeed a newsletter which gets replicated here… I like the idea of having some specific local niche content on the site… I take what your saying, but just wanted to make it clear that it was very much at my request that the posts were being made!

Anyone else any views on this?

By: Emmet

Emmet — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:57:25 +0000

These bulletins seem more appropriate for a news letter than for blog postings. Firstly, they’re way too long, perhaps consider paraphrasing, or just pointing out a few highlights.
Secondly, you’re targeting such a small niche (Cork actors/ theatre goers) that again, the form of an emailed newsletter would be more appropriate. This site is read by people from all walks of life, all over the world, not just Cork actors.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with the occasional promotion or review of something local. Reading someone’s insights into any art form can have universal relevance, but I don’t get any sense of the broader audience even being slightly considered here.

Like many people, I use an RSS reader to access the site, so I don’t just get the first couple of paragraphs, I get the whole shebang to scroll through.

If blogging is the best way to get this content out there, then it might be worth considering setting up a specific Cork actors blog. Then the bifsniff post could be a simple “Hey Guys Marcus here, I’ve just posted a new bulletin over on the Cork actors blog. This month’s highlights include: Some great workshops at the Triskel, and what is anticipated to be an excellent production of ‘The Merchant of Venice; at the half moon club. Click through for more.”

I hope this is taken in the spirit intended, which is basically a couple of friendly pointers.