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New DevelopmentsDateline: 24th February, 2002Change is natural. Change is necessary. If things don't change, they stagnate or even die. Change, of course, can be negative: we've all experienced things that have changed for the worse.Now, less than four months after going online, the British Theatre Guide is changing. Of, as we prefer to put it, the British Theatre Guide is getting better .The aim of the BTG is to provide lovers of British Theatre with place on the Web where they can find coverage of all aspects of theatre in the UK. There are, of course, other websites which have a lot to offer: London Theatre Online, the Society of London Theatre site and Albemarle, for instance, cover the West End and the London Fringe in some detail, giving news, reviews and so on. What's On-Stage attempts to cover professional theatre throughout the country. UK Theatre Web is primarily a database of theatre information covering the whole country. Amdram, which started off covering East Anglia, now covers the whole UK amateur theatre scene. Theatre in Wales covers - obviously! - Welsh theatre. Then, of course, there are individual sites for theatres, areas of the country, theatre companies both amateur and professional, and individuals. There are technical sites, sites for equipment manufacturers, sites about playwrights, and so on. There are even sites, specialising in theatre, aimed at visitors to the UK. What the British Theatre Guide does is attempt to provide a guide to all of these sites. There are, for instance, around 2000 links to sites of UK theatre interest, all annotated so that prospective visitors will see in advance if these sites hold any interest for them. But it also provides a weekly news digest, special features of historical or other interest, help for writers and would-be actors, facts about theatre and even supplements the sites for actors and actresses by offering information on many who do not have websites devoted to them. There's even a Directory of British Theatres. This week we add something new: a bookstore. So what's different about that? you may ask. Loads of sites have links to Amazon or Amazon UK, so why is our bookstore different? It's because all the books we mention are personal recommendations: we don't just pitch you into, for instance, the Amazon Performing Arts section and expect you to navigate yourself around looking for something that might be of interest. We select books which are important or interesting and take you directly to pages which deal with them and them alone. And we've split our bookstore over a number of pages, so that you van more easily find what you're looking for. At present, we have a page devoted to reference books and books about acting . You'll find them in Bookstore 1. Then we have a page devoted to criticism and Shakespeare. The third page deals with playscripts and history and the fourth with music theatre. These pages will grow continually: we'll be adding new items on a regular basis. The playscript section, in particular, is set to grow and grow. We hope, as soon as possible, to have the scripts of all modern plays mentioned or reviewed on the site available. You may ask, why should you buy through an online shop rather than from your friendly local High Street shop? Well, if your local shop has the books you want in stock, that's fine, but the chances are that they don't. When I did my test purchase (see below), I deliberately chose a book that our local Ottakars didn't have. They told me they could get it for me within a few days, certainly by the end of the week. Amazon had it in stock. I ordered it at ten on Tuesday night: it arrived at midday on Thursday. It cost me extra for postage, but then I didn't have to travel into town to get it. I was on holiday, of course, but I could have had it delivered to work. And if I'd been sending it to a friend, I could even have had it gift-wrapped! (I bet they's do a better job of gift-wrapping than I can! I use half a roll of sellotape and it looks like it's been done by a blindfolded one-handed monkey!) But we're not only interested in dealing with new books. What about older books which might be out of print? Or perhaps theatre programmes? Amazon can sometimes find older books, but don't hold your breath waiting! But supposing someone somewhere has exactly the book you want and is willing to sell it? That's what our Buy Sell Exchange page is all about. And it's a free service: any transactions are made between buyer and seller, with no involvement of the BTG. Take a look! It may be just what you want! But what about all these advertisements that have suddenly started appearing? What's that all about? Go to the next page to find out! Articles Indices:
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