#0 - A new start
Goodbye threads, hello Substack
Those of you who follow me on twitter will know I use it as a space to share thoughts and ideas about the musical theatre, form, craft and landscape.
Lately these ideas have also branched into thoughts about the way digital and hybrid models can help drive change in new musical theatre and how disrupting existing hegemony and the monolithic structure of commercial West End musical theatre might be a path forward to new and unexpected music led stories.
I have been a huge fan of twitter’s thread function as a way to string together individual thoughts into longer ideas. I have also been thrilled by the debate, discourse and discussion that has sharpened and refined my ideas. However since writing a book I have found myself newly interested in finding space to frame and debate ideas in a more nuanced way. A way that eschews some of the quick sloganising, one upmanship and toxicity of Twitter.
As such I am going to be collating my thoughts into a weekly newsletter on Substack. This will sometimes be a messy collage of ideas and wonderings about musical theatre, form and process. Sometimes it may resemble drafts of future book chapters.
As time goes on I'm also interested in using Substack as a place to post videos and demos, spotlight artists I admire and advertise Q&A sessions, seminars or roundtables about stuff that bubbles up.
I ask that if you are interested in musical theatre and the possibilities for the medium going forward that you subscribe here. I will continue to tweet occasionally but I am going to use Substack as a place to regularly share discourse and welcome debate. The lack of nuance on twitter is beginning to grate on me. It is making me sound angrier and less constructive than I am. Writing a book was an act of great optimism for me. It let me talk about why musical theatre is extraordinary, why it deserves to be valued, and what might and should be waiting just around the corner for the medium.
I will be planning out a publishing schedule for my newsletter in the coming days but until I have that figured out you can expect a weekly newsletter every Thursday.
Thanks for your support, kindness and robust and exhilarating debate. I hope it continues on - albeit in a less reactive and more constructive way - in this new arena. Together I hope we can all figure out how to best care about musical theatre in the coming years.