Content conundrum

The theatrosphere has been having those “What have we become?” moments spurred on by a seemingly innocuous post by Tony Adams on the lack of content about what actually appears onstage in the theatre-focused online community. The post was motivated by comments made by Tony’s friend Chuy, paraphrased as:

“What I don’t get . . . people all over the blogosphere, and in shows I’ve worked on, talk about business models, rehearsal processes, the whiteness of theatre, women playwrights, 501c3– they talk about all that stuff . . . but why doesn’t anyone ever talk about content. The actual content of theatre? No one ever talks about the actual content of what is on stages. Why?”

The post generated a firestorm of responses, none of which challenge the thesis that theatre blogs are much more focused on the meat and potatoes of producing work than the actual content of the work on stage.

Is there not enough content about the actual content of theatre online? What can be done to encourage more discussion of the craft without alienating other artists? What other barriers are there to communicating more about art and less about the business of creating art?