THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CANADIAN THEATRE ON THE WWW
(http://www.canadiantheatre.com) is a 1200-article site hailed as a
major resource for students, teachers and all those interested in
Canadian theatre. It includes profiles of artists, institutions and
their creations as well as documents of interest, archived theatre
reviews and a media library. Please come by and visit.

This week's bulletin:

It's a new year and things just bounce along over here with help coming
in from several quarters (particularly profilees who help me keep their
own profiles up to date). The word is out and more and more teachers are
telling me that it is their students who have turned them on to the
site. The comments I get are mostly glowing and I have to restate that
this has a lot to do with the hundreds of people who take the time to
offer advice, changes or nominations (and then who gather the
information towards creating a usable profile!).

The figures have kept steady with upwards of 20,000 visitors per week
(Feb 3-9: 21,163). These numbers spike during exam periods and the end
of the school year.

Part of the reason for the continued growth - besides teachers - is that
the press - slowly and reluctantly - is beginning to talk about the
project. You may be aware that Encyclopedia of Canadian Theatre on the
WWW is leased, for the time being, by Canoe which is a division of
Netgraphe which is a division of Quebecor, a gigantic media empire with
newspapers across the country. Because of this, the project is sometimes
seen as a competitor with papers in the Southam chain, for instance. And
because of that, when the encyclopedia was clearly used as a source for
articles (particularly obituaries) it was not cited. But things change.
When John Herbert, the writer of "Fortune and Men's Eyes", died last
year, several "competing" papers cited and listed as source the
magnificent profile Anton Wagner wrote for the Encyclopedia of Canadian
Theatre on the WWW (The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star among them).
This month, the Montreal Gazette (a Southam paper) featured an article
about the production of "For The Pleasure of Seeing Her Again" in
Ireland and quoted extensively and cited the project (even including the
web address). It took four years to get to this point, but now that we
are there it is terribly gratifying and it will help the traffic on the
site immeasurably. In French there is a noun that applies here for the
site: "incontournable." It's a word that suggest that the object is
unavoidable - a must-see/must-use. It's nice that, finally, we're
becoming a must-cite.

New profiles:
Theatre Junction (company)
http://www.canadiantheatre.com/t/theatrejunction.html
Touchstone Theatre (company)
http://www.canadiantheatre.com/t/touchstonetheatre.html
Headlines Theatre (company)
http://www.canadiantheatre.com/h/headlinestheatre.html

Updates (P=Photo added):
Reviews (27 Added); Masthead; Links; Kareda, Urjo (death of); Shuster,
Frank (death of); Ottawa Little Theatre; Ferguson, J.; Deyglun, H.;
Hirsch, J.; Stevens, E.; Haentjens, B.; Chan, M.; Woolf, H.; Ondaatje,
M.; Rainbow Stage; Hunter, M.; Garnhum, D.; Miller, M.; Quebec Drama
Federation; Wing, P.; Slade, B.; Pollock, S.; Barron, C.; "The Dragonfly
of Chicoutimi"; Tremblay, L.; "La Repetition"; Champagne, D.; Maheu, G.;
Asselin, J.; Plamondon, L.; Chaurette, N.; Girard, R.; Gass, K.;
Surette, R.; Sherman, J.; Bouchard, M.; British Columbia; "Hosanna";
Spychalski, T.; Saskatchewan; 25th Street Theatre; Feminist Theatre;
Dorval, A.; Picard, L.; McClemens, J.; Espace Go; Bernard, P.;
Denoncourt, S.; Fergusson, D.; "Jacob's Wake"; Dale, C.; Johnson, G.;
Benskin, T.; Theatre du Nouveau Monde; Ducharme, R.; Theatre de la
Bordee; Dunsmore, R.; Soiree des Masques; Vincent, J.; Sears, D.;
McCormack, E.; Thomson, K.; Thomson, R.; Wasserman, B.

If you would like a copy of the entire list of profiles, I can send it
to you by e-mail (there is no charge for this service).

Register your link too (at no charge)!
(http://www.canadiantheatre.com/links/linksguidelines.html)

Gaetan L. Charlebois (Editor, The Encyclopedia of Canadian Theatre on
the WWW) http://www.canadiantheatre.com
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