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Amateur Theatre Websites - Our Annual Survey
Dateline: 13th October, 2002
I don't know if it is the availability of sophisticated website building
programs that's behind it, but there is no doubt that, technically,
amateur theatre websites are very much better than they have ever been.
Flash, Javascript, asp, php are becoming quite commonplace and we are
seeing more image maps, dropdown navigation menus, rollover effects,
pop-up windows and other similar techniques which, just a year ago,
were rarely found outside of expensively produced professionhally designed
sites.
Design quality is improving too: many sites now look as though some
creativity has been involved in their design. More amateur theatre sites
are actually attractive to look at than in the past.
Of course there are still some sites which look as though they have
been knocked together, not designed at all, and give the impression
the author is colour blind. Some people still seem determined that their
sites will make rainbows look monochromatic and others seem to feel
that if every other item on a page is not animated, then they have failed,
but these are a smaller and smaller percentage.
However...
There's always an "however", isn't there?
...there are still some things which webmasters/mistresses really should
avoid like the plague, but which are still far too common. For example,
- no internal navigation: you're expected to go back to the home page
in order to move on through the site;
- dreadful midi files which you can only turn off by muting your computer's
sound system;
- pointless Flash introductions which say nothing but "Look how
clever I am! I can do Flash";
- reviews of shows from the local press which are scanned newspaper
cuttings - in uncompressed .gif format which take three weeks to download;
- tiled backgrounds: do they not want us to read the text?
- pages designed for a single screen resolution, usually the largest,
so that everyone using a different size has to scroll sideways - that's
a big no-no!
- huge uncompressed jpegs which, when they eventually download, turn
out to be out-of-focus shots of the whole stage with two tiny characters
(whom not even their mothers would recognise) in the middle;
- cheesy clip art graphics which come bundled with every web-building
package ever invented and which no self-respecting designer would
touch with the proverbial barge pole;
- pages which are still "under-construction" - if it's not
there, don't link ot it!
Content
But what of content? How's that doing?
Generally pretty well, really. Let's face it, most amateur societies
have little that is substantially different from others, so most sites
have similar ingredients: about the society, the latest production,
past and future productions, the society's history, memebrship and how
to join, how to find them, social events, their performance space, and
so on. Some add newsletters, chat about events, personal news about
members, even in-jokes.
Few, however, separate the two, and they really should. As a surfer
interested in what amateur companies are doing in other parts of the
country (and being on a dial-up connection), I really do not want to
waste time and bandwidth on jokes about people I don't know - or worse,
on downloading photographs of the same people pulling funny faces or
caught in silly poses. However members may well love this, so why not
create a separate section for memebrs? It doesn't have to be password
protected: all it needs is its own index. Put a link to Members Section
on the front page; let that take you to the Members' Index, and then
you can have all your in-jokes etc. etc. etc. without annoying outsiders
who are only interested in what you're doing theatrically.
And as one who spent a lot of years in amateur theatre, I really get
annoyed when I see grandiose claims that "we produce shows the
equal of anything the professionals can do." You can't! It's that
simple.
Yes, some of the really large societies can get close, but if you're
the village drama club from Little Pimple on the Bottom (or even Pimple
Magna), making that sort of claim will destroy all your credibility.
But that apart, on the whole the majority of amateur theatre sites
are doing a good job for themelves and the amateur theatre movement
- and that's certainly a huge turn-around from the way things were when
we did our first survey in 1997!
Articles Indices:
Articles from 2002
Articles from 2001
Articles from 2000
Articles from 1999
Articles from 1998
Articles from 1997
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