Archive-name: theatre/part1 Last-modified: 1993/09/27 Welcome to the rec.arts.theatre Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)/Informational posting! COMMENTS/CORRECTIONS: This FAQ is still in the process of being expanded and revised. If you have any comments or corrections, please let us know. A number of people have contributed to the FAQ; several of them have indicated an interest in fielding comments themselves. These people have their email addresses indicated at the top of the section they have written, like this: [, comments: ]. Comments about all other sections should be addressed to me at aku@leland.stanford.edu. SUBMISSIONS: I realize that vast areas of theatre have been neglected in this FAQ (performance, for example). If you wish to contribute an article(s), I welcome your input. Please contact me at aku@leland.stanford.edu, in part to ensure that someone else isn't already writing up something similar. *********************************************************************** THE REC.ARTS.THEATRE FAQ/INFORMATIONAL POSTING written by: [MB] Myra Bronstein myra@karin.att.com [JAC] Jon Alan Conrad conrad@brahms.udel.edu [DF] David Fristrom davidf@HQ.Ileaf.COM [AK] Andrew Ku aku@leland.stanford.edu [ELN] Elizabeth Lear Newman eliz@world.std.com [SP] Scott Putterman valjean@cs.stanford.edu [DS] Desiree Sy dsy@psych.toronto.edu additional material: [SB] Susan Burton suburton@carson.u.washington.edu [ML] Michael Lara mlara@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu [HN] Hung Nguyen nguyen@paranet.com [AR] Andrew Richards sfue5@syma.sussex.ac.uk [RS] Richard Sucgang rs54@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu [AW] Alan Woods awoods@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Copyright (c) 1993 by the aforementioned authors. Use and copying of this information are permitted, as long as: a) no fees or compensation are charged for use, copies or access to this information. b) this copyright notice, with author list, is included intact. *********************************************************************** corrections/additions by: Brian Evans bevans@carina.unm.edu Paul Goldsmith goldfish@imgserver.sbi.com David Pirmann pirmann@cs.rutgers.edu Gary Watson trimm@netcom.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS FAQ Part I: General, Broadway, London, Mail Order, Books * = new or significantly revised 1. GENERAL 1.1 About rec.arts.theatre. [ELN] 1.2 The Play/Musical Debate on r.a.t 1.2.1 Let's split rec.arts.theatre into plays/musicals! [ELN] 1.2.2 Subject Line Codes 1.3 What is the correct spelling of theatre/theater? [AW/ELN] 1.4 Are there other theatre-related newsgroups and mailing lists? [ELN] 1.5 Periodicals [SB] 1.6 Where is the FAQ archived? 2. BROADWAY INFORMATION [AK] 2.1 How do I find out what's playing? 2.2 Buying Regular-Priced Tickets 2.2.1 In Person Purchases 2.2.2 Telecharge/Ticketmaster 2.2.3 Mail Order 2.2.4 Cancellation Lines 2.3 Discount Tickets 2.3.1 TKTS (Officially: New York City on Stage) [MB/AK] 2.3.2 Bloomingdales [MB] 2.3.3 Standing Room 2.3.4 Twofers 2.3.5 Student Tickets 2.4 Premium-priced Tickets 2.4.1 The Actor's Fund of America 2.4.2 Scalpers 2.4.2 Brokers 2.5 Returns/Exchanges 2.6 Size of Bway theatres and Floor Plans 2.7 Additional New York Information 3. LONDON INFORMATION [DF] 3.1 Venues 3.1.1 The West End 3.1.2 The RSC and the RNT 3.1.3 The Fringe 3.2 How to find out what's playing 3.3 How to get tickets 4. MAIL ORDER (RECORDINGS, SOUVENIRS, POSTERS) [AK] 4.1 Hard-to-find recordings 4.2 Souvenirs and posters 5. DRAMA-RELATED BOOKSTORES [DS] 5.1 New York 5.2 Ontario 5.3 California 5.4 Washington, D.C. 5.5 Boston 5.6 Chicago 5.7 England 5.8 Netherlands -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. GENERAL 1.1 About rec.arts.theatre. [ELN, comments: eliz@world.std.com] Welcome to rec.arts.theatre! This forum is intended for the general discussion of theater, in whatever form it make take, including technical discussions, staging, costumes, recordings, etc. 1.2 The Play/Musical Debate on r.a.t 1.2 Let's split rec.arts.theatre into plays/musicals! [ELN, comments: eliz@world.std.com] This has been proposed several times, but has always faded with the objections of the readership of the group. The general consensus is that there isn't enough traffic to justify splitting into plays vs. musicals traffic, and the net has too many groups already without splitting one that doesn't need to be split. 1.2.2 Subject Line Codes [AK, comments aku@leland.stanford.edu] During the most recent debate (summer 1993), several people suggested adding a code, as is done on r.a.tv and r.a.tv.soaps, to the beginning of subject lines to enable readers to kill particular categories of discussion. Among the proposals and/or codes people started using: NM: non-musical discussion M, MUS, MUSICAL: musical discussion G, GEN: general/nonspecific discussion [although there would seem to be a lot of potential overlap with the NM category.] as well as show-based codes like MIZ, MFL (My Fair Lady), etc. Although use of codes dropped off shortly after the thread tapered off, this subject has been included in the FAQ nevertheless; maybe people will try using them again. 1.3 What is the correct spelling of theatre/theater? [AW/ELN] [AW]: Francis Hodge published an article about this in THEATRE SURVEY in the late 1960's. "Theater" is a result of Noah Webster's efforts in the 1830s to create an American language purified of English spellings: that's when we lost "colour" "centre" and a lot of other words that Noah deemed to be too British for the new American democracy. Since the American theatre/theater at the time was still dominated by British actors and managers, along with American actors and managers trying to suggest that theater/theatre was a high class art, the practitioners rather stubbornly clung to the British spelling. There have been a lot of attempts to differentiate usage ever since, but whatever the market or editor or style sheet will accept will work. About the naming of the newsgroup [ELN, comments: eliz@world.std.com]: Back in 1990 or so when I [ELN] proposed creating the newsgroup, I polled the members of the musicals mailing list as to a preferred spelling. The overwhelming support was for 'theatre' over 'theater' for several reasons, among them a) that 'theater' represented the building and 'theatre' represented the art and b) that Americans were the only country that spelled the word 'theater', and it would be more international in flavor to use 'theatre'. It was also said that 'theatre' looked more elegant. Thus the name was submitted for the discussion as rec.arts.theatre, and when the question came up again during the pre-vote period it became obvious that the popular support was still for 'theatre' over 'theater', and it was voted on that way. 1.4 Are there other theatre-related newsgroups and mailing lists? [ELN, comments: eliz@world.std.com] This is a list of theatre-related mailing lists available on bitnet: Network ID Full address List title ---------- ------------ ---------- ASTR-L ASTR-L@UIUCVMD Theatre History Discussion List - Amer. Soc. COMEDIA COMEDIA@ARIZVM1 A discussion of Hispanic Classic Theater THEATRE THEATRE@GREARN The Theatre Discussion List FILM-L FILM-L@VMTECMEX Film PERFORM-L PERFORM-L@ACFCLUSTER.NYU.EDU Performance Studies SCRNWRIT SCRNWRIT@@TAMVM1 Screenwriting SCREEN-L SCREEN-L@UA1VM Film and TV (research, teaching, ...) SHAKSPER SHAKSPER@utoronto Shakespearean Studies TV-L TV-L@TREARN TV program discussions Subscribing is easy. Let's say you want to subscribe to TV-L. Just send an e-mail message to LISTSERV@TREARN on BITNET and include in the BODY of the message (NOT the subject) the line: SUBSCRIBE TV-L your full name Example: SUBSCRIBE TV-L Adrian H. Aerts On Internet, there is the Stagecraft list. Send a message to: stagecraft-request@jaguar.cs.utah.edu - The coordinator will sign you up or give you information about the list. Many of the participants in this list are theater professionals. Purpose: This list is for the discussion of all aspects of stage work, including (but not limited to) special effects, sound effects, sound reinforcement, stage management, set design and building, lighting design, company management, hall management, hall design, and show production. This is not a forum for the discussion of various stage productions (unless the discussion pertains to the stagecraft of a production), acting or directing methods (unless you know of ways to get actors to stand in the right spots), film or video production (unless the techniques can be used on the stage). On USENET, there is also a newsgroup called alt.stagecraft. This is not affiliated with the stagecraft mailing list, and will not carry the same discussions. If your site subscribes to the clari.news hierarchy, clari.news.arts carries Associated Press reviews of Broadway and off-Broadway productions, as well as weekly NY theatre listings. 1.5 Periodicals [SB] Will be submitted shortly. 1.6 Where is the FAQ archived? This FAQ is available in two locations by anonymous ftp: úÿ (continued next message)