‘A play on words’ - #Page27Blue: The first play on Twitter?

March 18, 2014 - PRLog -- Twitter started life in 2006 as an online social networking service where users send and read "tweets", which are text messages limited to 140 characters.   It has been reported that the service now has over 500 million registered users that post an average of 340 million tweets per day.   This makes Twitter an ideal user engagement stage and where there is a stage there has to be a performance.

#Page27Blue works by making use of Twitter’s search feature where Users group posts together by topic using hashtags – words or phrases prefixed with a "#" sign.  In this case audiences connect with this performance by searching for #Page27Blue on Twitter.

The play is perhaps the first live play on Twitter, opening a door to more creative work, which may prove to be a significant new direction for social media.

Written and directed by David Jones, a Yorkshire based playwright this is a bold step.   “The inspiration for the play came from Orson Welles’ radio adaptation of the well-known book, War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, broadcast in 1938.  Until that time radio was not used for entertainment in this way and millions of radio listeners were shocked when radio news alerts announced the arrival of Martians. “, says David.  “Showing that new public mediums can be used creatively is an attractive challenge and I am pleased that working with 2b Acting has provided this opportunity.”

So what is this new styled play performed on Twitter about?

Well, the play is a gripping piece of theatre that makes use of the fact that the Twitter verse is a place where hopes and dreams are shared, where society is displayed through a constant stream of good and bad messages.  Over the course of Twitter exchanges Sarah Landis, a Twitter User, finds another User known as Blue.   Sarah, through Tweets, is shown by Blue how to live and in living she finds happiness and perhaps love.  However, being happy comes with a price, one that she fights against, refusing to accept what seems inevitable.  That whilst she is happy she can never be with Blue.

Street theatre has shown the value of bringing plays to where audiences congregate and so it is not a surprise that art has found social media. With diminishing theatre-going audiences perhaps this might be the stimulation the sector needs. Will the public enjoy performances on this new stage?  Time will tell.

To find out more about the play visit www.2bacting.com or contact admin@2bacting.com.

Tags: announcements, play, theatre, twitter, blue.