AUDITIONS for Terry Pratchett's CARPE JUGULUM

AUDITIONS are now available to be booked for ARENA's next Community Theatre production, Terry Pratchett's CARPE JUGULUM.

See the AUDITIONS section of this website or phone 9362 4080.

Arena, is it really necessary to post the your audition notice in three different sections? It just strikes me as overkill.

Melissa

I'd just like to say that I, for one, am very pleased to see Arena advertising its next production. I know a great many actors (and aspiring actors) who have been keenly awaiting Arena's next Pratchett production.
Lords and Ladies (unfortunately I never got to see Wyrd Sisters) was a brilliant production with a huge cast and very difficult technical requirements. To my mind, Melissa, it would indeed be necessary to advertise loudly and proudly for such a major production as Carpe Jugulum.
Good luck finding everything you need for a wonderful production Arena!

>I'd just like to say that I, for one, am very pleased to see Arena advertising its next production. I know a great many actors (and aspiring actors) who have been keenly awaiting Arena's next Pratchett production.


Absolutely, promote away. That's what this site is for.


>Lords and Ladies (unfortunately I never got to see Wyrd Sisters) was a brilliant production with a huge cast and very difficult technical requirements. To my mind, Melissa, it would indeed be necessary to advertise loudly and proudly for such a major production as Carpe Jugulum.


Loud yes, proud absolutely, but my complaint was with that fact is was repeatedly. Arena is a well known company who have now gained a reputation for their Pratchett plays. They don't need to post under every section to get attention. It's simply not necessary.

Anyway, good luck with the auditions Arena.

Melissa

Our theory was that not everyone reads every section. Wouldn't want to miss out on getting the best people possible.

ARENA Arts & Entertainment Inc wrote:
>
> Our theory was that not everyone reads every section.
> Wouldn't want to miss out on getting the best people possible.



Yes, but FOUR times in THREE sections, plus the What's On section AND the Audition section ??? Not to mention the fact that every post heading is repeated right there on the home page when you enter the site, and the whole of every message is sent to the inbox of anyone who receives the digest.


And then the fact that Melissa made a polite criticism but kindly left your subject heading intact meant that your headline was repeated yet another 6 times on the site.


Honestly, do you think we're not getting the message here? Surely "the best people possible" have got enough brains to check the Audition section and the Billboard Bulletin section...and would probably feel a bit insulted by being shovelled a truckload of spam.

I know the over-enthusiastic post-er had the best of intentions; but you do yourself and the site a disservice. If I WAS a person who didn't read every section, which section do you think I WOULD read to find an audition?
And if I noticed a forum was plastered with subject headings I'd already noticed in another section, would it encourage me to enter and read that forum?


Please don't list an audition notice in the What's On performance section, it's misleading. And fair enough, you wanted to post for technicians in the Techtalk forum, but it didn't need another audition notice in there as well! The one was sufficient.
At a guess I'd say the most read sections are the Billboard and Greenroom Gossip forums, they seem to receive the most traffic in posts. One or the other is enough to draw attention to the details which you've placed in the Auditions section.


I'll tell you a more acceptable way to make sure your notice is noticed...if you really think it's warranted and necessary, you can keep returning here regularly to give us updates.. i.e "auditions next Thursday", then "auditions tomorrow", then "...today", then "...we still need more blokes",...etc.
It keeps it in the public eye but it also gives us the impression that there's something new worth reading about. You'll also get a chance to discover if people are responding to your message, rather than assuming no one reads it unless it's shoved down every orifice with a trowel.


Mmmm....flame-grilled spam...

All the best with your auditions, by the way.


Cheers,
Craig

[%sig%]

Oh dear, try something different and you get dumped on. Apologies for breaking your rules as to how this website can be used. Perhaps I should have explained myself more in my previous reply, and then a burst blood vessel or two might have been avoided.

Despite some very nice comments made about us here, we still consider that ARENA is not a company that has a very high "general public" profile. After all, most of our 125 projects over the last fourteen years have been Theatre For Schools (or related) productions, and we have only recently returned to doing public performance as well. So we are interested in HOW and WHERE people find out about us FIRST. It is something that our new Auditionee Info Form will be asking our auditionees. To make more efficient use of our resources it is easier to ask the 40+ people who usually audition for our Pratchett productions than trying to survey the 1000+ audience members who come to see the show.

The usefulness of this website took a battering recently in its own Publicity Poll (and interestingly the poll didn't hang around for too long, hmmm . . which is a pity since it was generating a lot of shared publicity ideas). We wanted to see how this related to Actors, so our Auditions were mentioned in various places. But this website is only a part of the whole picture of "advertising" auditions. We are also keen to know whether the 70+ newsletters we post out, the 40+ messages sent on a separate email list, or announcements on radio and the like are effective, too.

I would like to point out the mention of Auditions in Tech Talk section of this website was an oops. A hair trigger on the mouse copied the wrong message or it could have just been my usual techno-incompetence. Unfortunately once it is there, HOW THE HELL DO YOU DELETE IT??? Does anyone know??? But on reflection, it might not have been such a bad idea. As it's been pointed out to me, a lot of techs have little desire to act, but some, if they are Pratchett fans (and many undoubtedly are) may want to cross over to the other side of the stage and wouldn't look in an Audition section, therefore missing the opportunity.

It is not our intention to raise the ire of users of this website nor suffer their rants and raves. We were simply experimenting, and hopefully this is what this website is for. Inadvertedly the extra attention you have drawn to our Auditions may be good, but then again, having to post this reply may affect what we originally set out to do.

Now please excuse me, I have a life and a production to be going on with (and an adaptation to wrestle with!). But thanks to all that have made comments.

Simon James
MANAGER
ARENA ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT INC.

Dear Mr James
Hopefully where auditionees missed out on seeing your notice in one place, they would have picked it up on another. Don't worry about the criticisms, just post your stuff where-ever you damn well please and however many times you please.

Good luck with your auditions, your life and your adaptations.
m

ARENA Arts & Entertainment Inc wrote:
>
> Oh dear, try something different and you get dumped on.



G'day Simon
(...same Simon James who was at WAIT/Curtin around 86-87? Were we both in an upstairs production by Andrew Creagh?)


Thanks for your well-thought response. Clearly, as I had surmised, you had admirable intentions.

There was certainly nothing personal in my ranting or raving, toward you or Arena; I'm quite impartial regarding who I rant & rave about (ie: everybody). And given the title of Pratchett's play, I thought bursting a large blood vessel would be deemed appropriate behaviour..!

I also wasn't dumping on you for trying something different, my gripe was purely about the annoying attributes of spam on a website such as this. Not my 'rules', but my reaction; and I'm aware that others share that reaction (someone suggested that the next poll ought to canvass appropriate punishments for those who carpet-bomb their posts unnecessarily across the board) ...although I do concede we may not be the majority or necessarily 'right' in that view.

On the topic of polls, the recent Publicity Poll didn't actually refer to the usefulness of this site; so while it's fair for you to insinuate we may need a reality check on how importantly we regard this site, I think you made some incorrect inferrals. It was just the 'What's On' section that ranked low compared to high-ranking options like posters, flyers, word of mouth etc. The site itself didn't really take a battering (for instance, some of the discussions in forums here must also count as word of mouth, which ranked pretty high...) but I guess statistics like that are free to be interpreted.
The poll was up for two weeks, which (based on a previous poll) is the preferred length of time before changing topics. Not even sure that I agree it was 'generating a lot of shared publicity ideas' ...the ideas were pre-generated from two contributor's suggestions and then my editorialising; all the poll does is reflect some limited opinion on the priority of those ideas.
There was some forum discussion on the topic; this had waned long before the poll was removed. (If you feel the need to refer back to the poll, click polls/view polls at the top of this page).

Re: Deleting posts - Yes, that's possibly a desirable function to incorporate. But actually, I don't know of any bulletin boards anywhere that actually have that facility. So it means you've got to be responsible with what you post (and I've certainly made plenty of un-retractable blunders). This site does have a 'preview' function, which is more than most.


I'm afraid I still don't think your explanation about advertising the auditions here as well as via newsletter, email, radio, etc. quite justifies the flooding of this website with a single message. You want your auditionees to respond as to how they first heard about auditions...say someone first read it in your newsletter - would it effect their answer if you'd sent six or seven identical newsletters to their address? Or is that just annoying overkill?
Your intention to guage the efficient use of your resources doesn't correlate to whether you post one message or many on this site. That was a bit of a red herring argument. The only question we're disagreeing on here is whether or not posting on all message boards attracts significantly more readers than it annoys.


Simon, you've justified your intentions well, and you can certainly be forgiven for your experimenting. I perhaps wouldn't have responded to all your points, except that you made it clear that Arena is keen to receive feedback on its publicity efforts...which I assume includes the use of this site. So surely my feedback & criticism about that is exactly what you called for in the first place. I'm sorry you consider that being dumped on.
And hey, it's only my opinion.

Cheers,
Craig



PS: 125 shows over 14 years is very prolific. Congratulations on such a wealth of output and experience.

[%sig%]

Hi Simon

Both you and ARENA are not only very welcome to continue using the site, you are actively encouraged to do so.

ARENA Arts & Entertainment Inc wrote:
> Oh dear, try something different and you get dumped on.

Don't flatter yourself, there's nothing "different" about flooding the message boards. You're not the first and I dare say won't be the last to do so. Why should the treatment you receive be any different from that dealt out to others that treat us all like idiots and flood the boards with duplicate messages?

:-)

> Apologies for breaking your rules as to how this website can
> be used.

crgwllms doesn't make the rules. Nor incidentally do I. I'd have hoped it was not about rules but about common sense. While I wouldn't claim a monopoly on the latter, something like a common sense of what this site is about has apparently led by far the majority of people using the site to use it in a productive manner without irritating others.

I've already suggested to you in an email in October last year that you avoid flooding the Events sections:

"While occasionally people come up with some inventive uses for the What's On
area, i'd like to try and prevent it becoming a bit of a free-for-all by discouraging listings that aren't actually events occuring on that day. As you can imagine, the What's On area would end up being something of a misomer (and pretty useless as a guide to what's actually happening that day!) if everyone started flooding it with advance booking notices. "

And yet, you ignored the essence of my message and recently posted an audition notice in the area set aside for productions? Where would we end up if everyone selfishly posted messages all over the place regardless of whether it was the designated place or not? This site, that in spite of your grizzles must be doing some good, would end being utterly useless.

> I would like to point out the mention of Auditions in Tech
> Talk section of this website was an oops. A hair trigger on
> the mouse copied the wrong message or it could have just been
> my usual techno-incompetence. Unfortunately once it is
> there, HOW THE HELL DO YOU DELETE IT??? Does anyone
> know???

As crgwllms has already suggested, far better to encourage people to post carefully and responsibly in the first place.

Like crgwllms, there are plenty of my own faux pas here for all to see. Good to see you've started building your own little collection.

;-)

Cheers
Grant

PS. Maria wrote: "Don't worry about the criticisms, just post your stuff where-ever you damn well please and however many times you please." My response? Maria is a big, fat, hairy troll and goatish tardy-gaited foot-licker!

[%sig%]

Mmm. I have to admit, I do read each of the message boards, and it is great to get all this information. However, my computer isn't a super dooper speedy one, so when notices are replicated on several message boards, I find it very annoying to be waiting to open each notice, to then find it is exactly the same as the previous three. In fact, it annoys me so much that if I'm in a hurry I won't open one with a repeat title. So maybe this defeats the purpose of repeating a message.

I sympathise with you Simon as I know you probably have a huge work-load, but I quite like Craig's idea to 'returning here regularly to give us updates' which implies additional information spaced out at acceptable intervals. This keeps reminding us about a production, but in an manner that doesn't antagonise anyone.

May I wish you well with CARPE JUGULUM.

Tina Jack

Just thought I'd also draw it to your attention that when you advertise an event on the "What's On" section list, you have the opportunity to categorise it as a 'production' or as an 'audition'.

'Production' events get listed in the What's On guide, along with everything else that day. (or that week, or month - in corresponding week/month view).


'Audition' events get listed in their own separate box, which stands out a lot clearer than the production events anyway.
The box shows all auditions that are happening that week, so you're not likely to miss it. It's right there on the home page, with plenty of notice, and well isolated from other information.


If you switch to the "What's On - This Week" view, all events are lumped in together, but auditions are isolated by the word "audition" in bold type preceding the entry. Again, very clear and easy to spot amongst the many events listings.


So really, it makes no sense whatsoever to advertise your audition as a production event, because you not only confuse the list of actual events, but you miss out on these two quite significant benefits to making sure your message stands out and is seen.



Maria, your notion that "Hopefully where auditionees missed out on seeing your notice in one place, they would have picked it up on another" makes sense if you're talking about spreading the word in different and disparate locations like a newsletter, a radio segment, a theatre notice board, etc...You would be obviously covering all bases where someone who gets the message via one medium might never come in contact with the same message via a different medium.

But people who come to this website are actively looking for information that interests them...they're not likely to miss seeing the notice unless you write it in an obscure and unclear way. The whole purpose of the home page and then the individual forums is to summarize and then categorise posts so you can find what you're looking for...all you have to do when you post a message is put it in its obvious place, and people will know how to find it.

If you follow your policy of "just post your stuff where-ever you damn well please and however many times you please", you're not covering all bases, you're just wasting your own time and effort to cover ONE base over and over.


I'm glad Grant resisted the obvious urge to post his response to you 'wherever he damn well pleased and however many times he pleased'.... we would be reading about your goatish tardy-gaited footlicking on every page of every forum for months to come.


Cheers,
Craig

[%sig%]

I see trees of green...red roses too. I see them bloom... for me and you... and I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue... and clouds of white... the bright blessed day... the dark sacred night... and I think to myself... what a wonderful world.
The posts on the website... so catty and so wry... you'd think we'd all get along better... if only we could try .
We're happier firing shots... and coming back for more... when will we learn... it only leads to war.
I see babies cry... I watch them grow... they'll learn much more... than I'll ever know... and I think to myself... what a wonderful world.
Yeah, I think to myself... what a wonderful... world......................

They're all talking war out there, guys. Let's show that we, as artists, are better than that.

Michael

Grant Malcolm wrote:
>
> Maria is a big, fat, hairy
> troll and goatish tardy-gaited foot-licker!
>

For as long as I have known her, Maria is a very fast walker.

The Machine wrote:

> They're all talking war out there, guys. Let's show that we,
> as artists, are better than that.



>I see trees of green....red roses too...I see them bloom... for me and you.
>And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.
>I see skies of blue... and clouds of white...The bright blessed day... the dark sacred night.
>And I think to myself... what a wonderful world.
>The colors of the rainbowÂ…..so pretty in the sky...Are also on the faces Â….of people going by
>I see friends shaking hands, saying 'How do you do?'...TheyÂ’re really saying... 'I love You'
>I hear babies cry... I watch them grow...They'll learn much more... than I'll ever know
>And I think to myself... what a wonderful world.
>Yeah, I think to myself... what a wonderful world.

(Louis Armstrong)



Well I dis-agree...as youÂ’d sÂ’pose IÂ’d do...Please donÂ’t assume, ...just because I argue
In the things that I post, ...that IÂ’m a monger of war.

All IÂ’m trying to do...in the comments I write...is to display ...that a barkÂ’s as good as a bite
And I think. when I post. ...thatÂ’s what I underscore

My cardinal persuasion...is to be witty in reply...I may be somewhat loquacious...when I over-justify,
If I tend to take the piss ...when I argue with you...I’m really just displaying ...my ‘Art’ to you.

Some here may think I ...should watch 'them bons mots’...They’ll earn no ‘amour’ ...from the average Joe.
But I think to myself...IÂ’ll go on, undeterred.
Just amusing myself ...having fun with the words.


Cheers,
satchmo wllms

[%sig%]