Hello again, readers!
If you have been reading my blog through the years, you know how much I adore and value my vast collection of Playbills. I could thumb through the pages reading old and new articles, admire the vintage looking advertisements and read actor bios over and over again. Just when I thought my love of smelly, old Playbills was rare behavior that only I possessed, the Playbill website created one of the most ingenious and useful sites yet – The Playbill Memory Bank.
Let me tell you how this site came about. The Editor of Playbill, Blake Ross, had what she called a “serendipitous moment” when she discovered a dusty box of her grandmother’s Playbills in the attic. Each book was scribbled with little personalized notes in the border about her grandmother’s experience at the theatre: what she had worn that night, who she went to the theatre with and whether or not she liked what she saw. Documenting the memories of the experience gave Blake and her team at Playbill the idea to create a place for you to share your theatergoing memories with the world.
The Playbill Memory Bank website allows you to create a free account and provides the following tools:
- Bank your theatergoing history with Playbills from the Vault
- Rate your favorite shows
- Plan for your next theatre outing with a personalized shared theatre planner
- See pictures and videos from your night out on the town
- Share your memories and plans with your host of other social networks including Facebook and Twitter
- Wish for shows and casts not yet on Broadway
I have been working on my own account for a few days now and find it extremely easy to use. It does take a bit of time to input all the information, but it’s such a treat to think back to who I was with and the uneventful things that created a fun memory of the night. The site works best for shows that were on Broadway, but it does allow you to add regional theatre information as well. So dust off all those Theatre Under The Stars Playbills because you have a job to do now!
Let me know if you start your own Playbill Memory Bank account and maybe I’ll share my account with all my readers!
Until next time,
Thea Star