Page 137 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2014

AC/E digital culture ANNUAL REPORT 2014TWEETED BACKSTAGE IMAGES AT TEATRO ALLA SCALArehearsal. The character seen adjusting a bow tie does not in fact appear wearing it until well into the second act. Of course, it seems less than ideal for the theatre’s audiovisual team to be interfering with the artists’ concentration and relaxation at a moment filled with tension and heightened nerves.Once the performance had started, the Scala’s Twitter account started tweeting what was happening on the stage and even small fragments of video were provided. There were also backstage images of the stage effects and even of the artists awaiting their moment to take the stage.When the performance was over the Twitter account continued to provide information about what was happening backstage with the artists embracing each other and then the post- performance celebration.TWITTER PROGRAMMESAlthough this is a service in its infancy there already are a number of institutions that have started providing brief programme notes about what the audience is viewing through their Twitter accounts. The National Symphony Orchestra, based at the Kennedy Center in Washington, has been one of theAC/Efirst orchestras in the United States to provide their programme notes in real time via Twitter. The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra also provides this service.TWEET SEATSIn 2009, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City (@kcopera) reserved a hundred seats during its performance of HMS Pinafore for some very special members of the audience. Occupying the back rows of the stalls, so that the light from their mobile phones would not disturb the other members of the audience, they were able to tweet a concert, an opera or a play using specific hashtags that had been designed for this performance. Some years later, this practice has spread to a good number of musical and theatrical institutions in the United States. An article published in the USA Today newspaper (http:// usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011- 12-01/theater-tweet-seats/51552010/1) mentions the Carolina Ballet (@CarolinaBallet), a dance company in Raleigh, and the Dayton Opera (@daytonopera). In this article, Rick Dildine, director general of theFOCUS 2014: THE USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PERFORMING ARTS2.1 THE USE OF THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES DURING PERFORMANCES CURRENT PAGE...TWEET SEATSPhoto credits: http://ow.ly/tuoD6137