Category — disasters

Introduction

In preparing for this post, I did a Google search on “Conversations with Edith Head.” This is the Invisible Theatre play currently in production at the Leicester Square Theatre in London through the end of August (2008).  It stars, and was co-written by the Invisible Theatre’s inimitable Susan Classen.

Google’s very first listing was the production’s very own website!  People would pay a lot of money to SEO “experts” for such a ranking.

Kudos aside, what next surprised me was the realization that, from my first pass-through of Invisible Theatre’s website and other online presences, I had never noticed any link or mention of this website.

Putting that insight on the shelf for the moment (we’ll come back to it), I should stop right here to say a few words about the Invisible Theatre and my engagement with it.

Back-Story

If you’ve read in my first post in this series, you know that my wife, Betsy Kruse-Craig, was taken on staff by the Invisible Theatre as an “Artistic Associate.” As for me, I’ve been fascinated by the phenomenon of Social Media and the possibilities that arise out of it’s emergence, and I have been working for over ten years designing and engineering software.  What you are not aware of is that before my career as a software maker began, I was in graduate school studying playwriting and performance.  It was natural, even casual, that Betsy made the request of me that I turn my attention toward the Invisible Theatre.

Not long before her request, I happened to have begun this blog.  It seemed a good mix to write about my process of developing a Social Media strategy for the Invisible Theatre.

So I did.

The Recent Past

This gave birth to my “Social Media Makeover Series.”

My very first post was picked up by Chris Laning, a producer of the podcast “Your Neighborhood Stage: The podcast for everybody who works or plays in community theatre.”  He emailed me, expressing his interest in an interview.

I was grateful for his interest, we made arrangements, and did the interview.  The unexpected thing about the interview was its context.  Chris had arranged to conduct the interview over the Internet, in the virtual world of Second Life.

If you are unaware of Second Life, you’re in the majority.  It’s a free, online virtual 3D (rendered in two dimensions) world.  In the world, you create an avatar (a personalizable, animated self-representation) and you interact in particular locations in a virtual “world” with other people through their own avatars. And you interact directly through voice.  And it’s free.

Unfortunately I hadn’t gotten the head-up from Chris that the interview was going to occur in a virtual world, so I was only present (hooked into the world) via audio.  But my experience, and the interview itself was enhanced by questions from the virtual attendees.

What a great idea!  An online, interactive virtual reality interview.  The idea was totally novel to me, but made perfect sense.

The Present

Yesterday, Chris published the interview, which you can download and listen to.  He entitled it “Social Media and Theatre.”  My only wish is that I had been better able to convey what the Invisible Theatre is.  In the interview, on that account, I totally Fail-Whaled.  My sincerest apologies to Susan Claasen, my wife, and to any of you who hear that part of the interview.

The Future

Chris has inspired me to add podcast versions of my blog entries.  Although I am not starting that just yet, I have already acquired the basic, essential equipment and software to do so.  I just need to rearrange my schedule to fit in the extra requisite time to put out a marginally descent podcast.  In other words, I have a bit more to learn before you’ll be seeing podcast versions of my blog available.

My current thoughts on the Social Media Makeover of the Invisible Theatre will be hitting the pavement after Susan returns from London in September.

Until then, I will keep posting my possibly but not necessarily unrelated thoughts, and working my way towards adding audio feeds (podcasts).

I finally went through the pictures I took for Molly’s wedding on April 26th (my 40th birthday). I have to say I’m not very happy with the results, overall, despite using Av mode on some last-second advice, and not having a bracketed flash. It would have been better for me if I had come into the occasion with full forewarning that I was to be the professional photograher.

I selected the best shots from the batch and of those, some are of acceptable quality, for sure, but the gig was kind of last-minute (her Mom’s friend Brooke was supposed to do the photography but apparently forgot het equipment), and it was my 40th birthday, after all.

I had some issues with my camera (after getting a lens repaired), issues centered around having the camera lock me out of taking a shot in manual mode when I thought (and was accustomed to) being able to snap the shot despite the camera’s mind about it. I chalk it up to focus lock, since the metering couldn’t (and shouldn’t) have been the culprit when shooting in manual mode. Anyway, I’m happy I got some decent shots. It’s just that some of the ones I really liked were inexplicably out-of-focus… Oh, well.

I had the opportunity to take some family portraits this afternoon for a nice family from my kids’ school who bought my services at a school auction, which despite an unexpected and unusually overcast sky went well until the wind kicked up all ot once and ended up knocking my brolley into the hot tub next to which it was positioned. Thanks to the fast reflexes of the husband, my flash unit was saved from immersion but, from that point, the wind remained constant and strong. Despite my foresight in obtaining a couple 20-pound sandbags to keep the stand in place, the umbrella was overpowered. At least it didn’t invert, and I have nothing but praises for my 45″ Photoflex brolley. A lesson in location photography with umbrellas learned, is all I can say. I doubt soft-boxes would have fared any better. I haven’t reviewed the shots I did get yet, but based on the in-camera review, I have hopes that they will turn out at least tolerable.

Technical aspects aside, I did learn that their beautiful, adopted daughter was originally from an area of China a few hours out of harm’s way from the areas devastated by the earthquakes earlier this week. I’ve been following the NPR broadcasts which are, incredibly and by coincidence (?), on location. Between that and Myanmar, it’s been a lot to digest, and I feel so deeply for the people who have been affected. I can’t halp but contemplate the possibility of, with my family and in my location, living through a disaster of such incredible proportions. You want to be prepared and ready, but the truth is, if and when such an event comes to pass, even the best of plans will probably be rendered impotent. My heart and hopes go out to those affected and their families. I can’t really even conceive of their experience except perhaps in the depths of my recurrent post-apocalyptic dreams….