The Flight to LIVE
Recent years have seen the beginning of the end for the entertainment markets as we know them.
Napster and it's successors have dealt a mortal blow to the CD-based record industry. Netflix tackled the largest video rental chain in the nation and brought it down to size. DVD sales far out perform box office receipts, and video games are outselling films(!?). In five years TV might be merely part of your internet experience... and that "internet experience" will probably be coming through your portable phone/computer/salad-shooter.
All the while, what happens to Theater?
It's good.
I have a friend, Adam Gurri, who uses a phrase: "the flight to live." "Live," as in live performance. Building on the theories of Chris Anderson, who penned a very readable augury on information economics --The Long Tail, Adam and I firmly believe that the internet (in addition to solving all of humanities ills) will usher in a new age of live performance.
Here's how:
1. The "Live" is the one entertainment product that cannot be pirated. By it's very nature the live performance requires that you go and immerse yourself in the "art". The "art" cannot be compressed and delivered to you for free by the internet or any other series of tubes. Films, Music, Books, Photographs, will all be more and more difficult to profit from (difficult is the wrong word, Byzantine perhaps, since revenue will come from advertising or other indirect means rather than through individual sales). Live performance, however, will be even more profitable because...
2. The internet has amazing marketing, advertising, and community organizing possibilities. In the future, I can imagine a world where as you walk/drive down main street, passing countless businesses, your smart phone, at regular intervals, might pipe-up and recommend local attractions that you will be interested in (and by "you" I mean YOU, because with determinate algorithms your phone will know exactly what you like). So, while in century 20, you might just walk right by 1st Stage Spring Hill, in century 21 your phone will find it, know you love theater (you're reading this blog after all), and give you notice: "THEATER HERE!"
--That's the Long Term--
Already, however, the internet makes it so much easier to find what you like in a region, and help you plan a visit. Take this website for example. Here, on the blog, you can always find the latest news about our endeavor. Soon you will be able to view our upcoming season, find links to Amazon.com pages for the plays and related materials to that season, see streaming content of segments of our productions, buy tickets, learn about classes, sign up for classes, and more. I can't (being a young person) even begin to comprehend how difficult it was (pre-internet) to publicize and make available all that information! And now, I can give you a slip of paper with 21 letters on it (1ststagespringhill.org) and you can access everything you need to know! But the internet doesn't just make theater easier to find, it makes it richer, because...
3. The special effects industry has revolutionized the motion picture. This fact alone has been often used to explain live theater's inexorable decline over the late 20th century. Why, after all, would you want to see a couple of guys on stage when you can see a very lively, charming, vibrant, TALKING FISH in 3D? There are theater purists out there that would rather see the guys, but for the majority of audience members the bright fantastical light of the movie-house projector has certainly out-shined the limelight of the stage. Now, however, digital technology and live effects processing allow movie style special effects to come to the stage. Things like "digital holographic projection" may sound like science fiction but... they are right around the corner. I don't want to give too much away, but, here at 1st Stage we intend to pioneer these technologies. If you think (judging by our warehouse accommodations and our youth) that our productions will be interesting little artsy pieces --that I might enjoy/fall asleep in-- think again.
It's a very exciting time indeed!
Napster and it's successors have dealt a mortal blow to the CD-based record industry. Netflix tackled the largest video rental chain in the nation and brought it down to size. DVD sales far out perform box office receipts, and video games are outselling films(!?). In five years TV might be merely part of your internet experience... and that "internet experience" will probably be coming through your portable phone/computer/salad-shooter.
All the while, what happens to Theater?
It's good.
I have a friend, Adam Gurri, who uses a phrase: "the flight to live." "Live," as in live performance. Building on the theories of Chris Anderson, who penned a very readable augury on information economics --The Long Tail, Adam and I firmly believe that the internet (in addition to solving all of humanities ills) will usher in a new age of live performance.
Here's how:
1. The "Live" is the one entertainment product that cannot be pirated. By it's very nature the live performance requires that you go and immerse yourself in the "art". The "art" cannot be compressed and delivered to you for free by the internet or any other series of tubes. Films, Music, Books, Photographs, will all be more and more difficult to profit from (difficult is the wrong word, Byzantine perhaps, since revenue will come from advertising or other indirect means rather than through individual sales). Live performance, however, will be even more profitable because...
2. The internet has amazing marketing, advertising, and community organizing possibilities. In the future, I can imagine a world where as you walk/drive down main street, passing countless businesses, your smart phone, at regular intervals, might pipe-up and recommend local attractions that you will be interested in (and by "you" I mean YOU, because with determinate algorithms your phone will know exactly what you like). So, while in century 20, you might just walk right by 1st Stage Spring Hill, in century 21 your phone will find it, know you love theater (you're reading this blog after all), and give you notice: "THEATER HERE!"
--That's the Long Term--
Already, however, the internet makes it so much easier to find what you like in a region, and help you plan a visit. Take this website for example. Here, on the blog, you can always find the latest news about our endeavor. Soon you will be able to view our upcoming season, find links to Amazon.com pages for the plays and related materials to that season, see streaming content of segments of our productions, buy tickets, learn about classes, sign up for classes, and more. I can't (being a young person) even begin to comprehend how difficult it was (pre-internet) to publicize and make available all that information! And now, I can give you a slip of paper with 21 letters on it (1ststagespringhill.org) and you can access everything you need to know! But the internet doesn't just make theater easier to find, it makes it richer, because...
3. The special effects industry has revolutionized the motion picture. This fact alone has been often used to explain live theater's inexorable decline over the late 20th century. Why, after all, would you want to see a couple of guys on stage when you can see a very lively, charming, vibrant, TALKING FISH in 3D? There are theater purists out there that would rather see the guys, but for the majority of audience members the bright fantastical light of the movie-house projector has certainly out-shined the limelight of the stage. Now, however, digital technology and live effects processing allow movie style special effects to come to the stage. Things like "digital holographic projection" may sound like science fiction but... they are right around the corner. I don't want to give too much away, but, here at 1st Stage we intend to pioneer these technologies. If you think (judging by our warehouse accommodations and our youth) that our productions will be interesting little artsy pieces --that I might enjoy/fall asleep in-- think again.
It's a very exciting time indeed!
1 Comments:
This blog is excellent, it answers many of the questions I had when I first heard/read about Krikstan's project. I'm excited for you all and very hopeful as well! I will watch this webspace for news and thoughts as things develop since I'm a lurker by nature. I hope to visit the 1st Stage this summer, while I'm in town, even if it's not open for business yet.
What made me want to comment on this particular post was a short story I read (this past week actually.) It is The Tunesmith by Lloyd Biggle. It was written, I think, about when TV was starting to replace radio and folks were worried about the fading out of "Live" performances. The story, if neither you (Peter) nor Adam has read it, details a future where "Visiscope" or weirdo TV has replaced all forms of entertainment. The events of the story lead to a sort of second Renaissance where true arts and music are rediscovered and giant disney-esque (in budget not style) theme parks devoted to live performances are the resorts of the future. I particularly liked the bit about a "Wagnerian theater where the complete Der Ring des Nibelungen is performed daily." Ha! wonder where they find the singers to do that?
Anyways, I'm a sucker for good, classic science fiction and thought I'd share. It's worth a read and definitely supports the points you've made here.
As far as internet usage effecting the appeal or demand for live music.. Well Montana doesn't offer an incredible amount of live theater, music, or anything. I scour out what I can. Youtube, however has filled the gaps for me. I can search it for pieces, for singers, for conductors, for arias, for performance snippets, and for anything really it seems. With Wikipedia I can read about their history and snippets of bios of performers, composers, play writes, and actors. This kinda sucks a little though, because in a way it's like smelling a flower but not being able to find it. I want more, I want to be back in the city and see it! Like that Willa Cather story...
Right then, end of ramble.
This is Sheba out.
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