Dramagirl Member since January 6, 2008

The insights of Clay Shirky are always worth reading, watching, or listening to. He’s as knowing as he is prolific. This video via TED says it all. Welcome to the revolution – you’re right in the middle of it.

I’ve been collecting snippets of my life for years. I guess I am a confirmed diarist at heart, although the collection process is random and not nearly as organised as it might be. I’ve had a camera since I was 11 years old – a Box Brownie as I recall – and have been collecting [...]

Oh well of course I had to post this. I’m tired of having to explain the what and whys of my own online engagement. ‘The Society for Geek Advancement’ is a delightful, short video to which I related … immediately. I wonder can you tell why?

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The last couple of days have seen reports of the outbreak of swine fever in what the media are calling ‘the Americas.’ Initial reports have spawned comment and further reports which have then been retweeted, reblogged, and sent on their way. It’s not overstating the mark to say that in some cases the responses have caused panic in readers. Whilst the possibility of a global pandemic is frightening, the mass response via the interwebs has raised the issue of social networking’s capacity to misinform and cause disproportionate responses to the originating story.
It brings to mind Orson Welle’s famous live radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds on October 30 1938. Welles and the Mercury Theatre’s interpretation of H.G. Wells’ story of the invasion of earth by Martians, was a famous example of a play within a play; that night the supposed normal broadcast of dance music was interrupted several times by ‘breaking news’ of gas explosions on Mars and of hydrogen gas moving towards Earth. ‘Experts’ were interviewed, and eventually ‘our reporter in the field’ sent back the shocking news from a ‘field in New Jersey’ in a recognisable newscast format that indeed, aliens from Mars had invaded. What happened next is infamous in radio drama history.
About 12 million people across the US were listening to the broadcast that night, and approximately 1 million (according to the analysts) reacted in panic, while many fled their homes in a major freakout. You can hear the whole backstory of this prime example of mass hysteria in response to media via WNYC’s Radio Lab. The podcast was broadcast last November live from St Paul Minnesota to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Welle’s radio drama. At the time the presenters asked ‘How did this happen?’ and ‘Could it happen again?’ It’s a terrific, fascinating podcast. Check it out here where you can listen or download.
Now this was a drama … not ‘real’ but peo

Given the conflicting points of view on the YouTube commentary on this video, I’m interested to hear the reaction from ‘middle-class’ actors in the US on the implications of the AFTRA ‘deal’ struck with the film industry. As an Australian-based actor I can’t but feel that these issues will arrive onshore pretty darn quickly down here.
Given that most see the arrival of web-based entertainment in a big way over the next few years, what are the unions - SAG doing to assist their membership? What does this AFTRA deal really mean?

I couldn’t resist posting Charlie Rose’s recent conversation with Ben Kingsley … for a couple of reasons. Firstly Sir Ben talks about the nuts and bolts differerences between stage and screen acting … something we all like to sift through. But in the second part of the conversation, he opens up in quite an extraordinary personal way, providing an intelligent and insightful glimpse of how he works as an actor.
It proves to me, if I needed to be convinced, of what I reckon is the secret ingredient in good performances - the emotional and intellectual intelligence of the actor in the role.

I can thoroughly recommend Alan Bennett at the BBC which is currently available from Audible.com or the iTunes store. I’ve just finished listening to the inimitable Mr Bennett reading what is a miscellany of his work from the past 30 or so years, and all via the BBC. By the way I very much also enjoyed his reading of The Uncommon Reader which is all about HM the Queen’s discovery of the joys of books and reading. It’s a wonderfully witty little piece of fiction, and the reading is made all the more enjoyable by Bennett’s own droll performance style. He’s got a great line in character voices … have a listen to him doing The Telegram in the video above. This piece is also included in the collection.
With Alan Bennett at the BBC, we get pieces which range from anecdotes during interviews, pieces from his radio plays and television productions, diary entries and commentary on family, friends, and people he’s worked with; his portrait of Peter Cook, a colleague from Beyond the Fringe is especially moving.
I love Bennett’s work as actor and writer. He is a most English playwright whose brilliance lies in an ability to capture the poignancy and detail of the ordinary lives of his characters. His wonderful series called Talking Heads must be one of the finest collection of extended monologues ever written for actors. They are funny, achingly sad, wise … the whole box and dice that make up a good piece of actorly text. Talking Heads was written for the stage and filmed for television, and if you don’t know it, then treat yourself and do something about getting access now. You’ll see Bennett at work in Talking Heads in a piece called A Chip in the Sugar. You’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite, but I still vividly recall Maggie Smith as the alcoholic vicar’s wife who found companionship and love with an Indian grocer in the extraordinary Bed Among the Lentils. Bennett  like Chekhov, writes plays which bob and weave their way between ...

It’s the first of the month, so today is the second ‘give a damn day’ where I nudge myself out of my self-absorption into an outward focus on things that need attention … things at least, that I can deal with. I’m a great believer in personal responsibility, and little things building up over time into something greater.
Whether or not others join me is immaterial, though it would be nice if everyone in their own ways took time out to focus energies on making a difference for the better in whateve

I have to thank Merlin Mann for this. If you don’t know his blog 43 Folders, check it out. I stumbled on this little 3 minute treasure quite by accident, thanks to being a Merlin devotee.
Over the past few years, he has sent me off on small quests that have enriched my thinking on creativity. I learned of Steven Pressfield The War of Art from Merlin. Here is a video from the estimable American dancer Twyla Tharp. She knows what she’s talking about, and she says it well.
I am reminded also of Dan Pink’

Here’s a little keeper video, a collage of Seesmic users on election day in the US. There’s comment and reaction from others around the world. Nice job from the editorial team.
PS I make a fleeting appearance. Spot me if you can.
Seesmix: November 6th 2008

The last couple of posts on this blog have been stimulated by the scope and very public use of social media as tools during the US Presidential election campaign. This morning I shared some discussion on Seesmic with two contacts, one in the US, one in the UK. We chatted about the way the BBC and VoxAfrica had used Seesmic as well as Phreadz and 12 Seconds to grab vox-pops for their own website presentation Have Your Say. Some of these grabs were also screened on television. You can trawl through my discuss

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The 2008 US presidential campaign is the first election in history in which social media have played such a huge role in stimulating voter interest, soliciting campaign support, urging voter registration, and then actually getting people out there to exercise a civic right/duty. During the last couple of days, friends on my Facebook have been ‘donating’ their status to get the vote out, largely for Obama it would seem. This may have less to do with Obama’s cleverly run campaign an

Image by Dramagirl via Flickr



Along with 58 other people on the 365 (now 366) Photo group in Flickr, I joined the quest in 2008 to hunt down an image a day for the entire year. Others on the project shot brilliantly creative pieces … true works of art. Checking out their uploads was a source of constant inspiration.
It’s all over now for 2008, but I’ve been spurred on to put last year’s project to bed by two fellow travellers on the project -  D’Arcy Norman and Dean Shareski. D’Arcy and Dean have written terrific roundups of their experiences.  Here’s my own report card …
The Metrics
I uploaded a total of 533 photos to Flickr during the year, and posted to Flickr on 206 days.  These numbers are interesting. Whilst I did not shoot every day, I did grab lots on those other days, so in a sense, one of the ideas behind the project - to keep at our photography - was fulfilled. I didn’t post to Flickr or the group every day, though I did try … my failure to get them to the group on quite a few of the days in the year has more to do with my own lack of organisation - or being out of computer reach - than anything else.
Some months’ posts are larger than others and reflect big events during a particular month. The average monthly post in 2008 was  just over 44. There are spikes in the graph for January (beginner’s enthusiasm), April (a theatre production I was in), and August when I uploaded 123 photos on my return from a European holiday. The mini-spike of 48 in July also came from that marvellously picturesque holiday that took in Greece and Turkey, Paris, and London.
More important than mere numbers was the fact that I started looking more closely at the world around me, at the details of the mundane, and also at the ‘big picture.’ I tried to shoot the intriguing, the silly, the lovely, the breathtaking for all kinds of reasons, but mostly to engage the sense memory we all have … to bring back the moment captured by...

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I couldn’t resist posting this, if only to prove how a great play can get sandbagged by good intentions. Here’s Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter, a brilliant, dark little piece for two actors. It’s been animated and condensed and posted up to YouTube.
The point, I hear you ask? Well maybe it will hook someone to read/see live the whole play, perhaps it’s enhancing the Pinter profile … mmm, maybe not.

It’s been a busy busy week for this groundling. And it’s mostly been spent travelling to and from Brisbane for performances, showcases, launches, and other industry-related matters. It’s typical of the frantic pace that accompanies the last couple of months of each year, as we gather to mull over what’s been, plan what’s to come, and draw breath before it starts all over again. It’s also time to watch the intake of canapés; there are only so many a groundling can take.
What’s either front and

Image via CrunchBase

I’ve been spending time in lots of social networking places during the past several months. One of my favourites is Seesmic.
I first started hanging out and playing with Seesmic back in April. Since then, there’s been lots of comment from other bloggers on the pros and cons of video commentary/conversation and so on, and let’s face it, not everyone is comfortable with this form of delivery or response. But video blogging (’vlogging’ to some … ugh!) is also undeniably attra

It’s BAD day (blog action day) around the world and this year’s action revolves around poverty. BAD is a day when privileged people like me, who have access to a computer and the internet, can add fuel to the (sadly only lukewarm it seems) debate on the haves and have nots, on privilege, social justice and responsibility. We sit down, we tap out our opinions, not without some guilt I suspect, as we sip a fresh-brewed coffee made from clean water. But of course BAD is good. Whatever our motivation we the