The ever-expanding blogosphere….

PT Barnum used to say that there’s a sucker born every minute (or at least he did in Cy Coleman’s musicalisation of his life), but nowadays it’s a blog that is born every minute. Mostly, of course, they’re a lot like keeping a personal diary – available for public consumption, but mainly for the writer’s benefit, not the prospect of anyone actually reading it (a friend who writes for The Independent told me she once feels the same way about her work there being very much like keeping a diary in that sense).

But while bulletin boards have a long history on the web of creating a community, in whatever field it specialises in, another community of bloggers is gradually emerging in the theatre world that’s creating a new dialogue, debate and diversity of different ways and opinions of experiencing the theatre, whether from the inside (written by directors, writers or actors), the critical ranks, or the public.

Of course critics are already paid for our opinions, so are we being greedy to contribute to this community as well? Speaking for myself, the blog you are reading now enables me to expand and broaden the sort of things I talk about, and perhaps engage with it more informally than in the space-limited platforms I write for elsewhere. But I am no longer far from the only critic blogging regularly: amongst my colleagues on this side of the Atlantic, you can also find Michael Billington and Lyn Gardner posting regularly on the Guardian arts blog; Kieron Quirk keeps a blog on the Evening Standard website; and Michael Coveney posts regularly on his Insiders’ View blog.

On the other side of the critical fence, arts practitioners are understandably more wary of airing their opinions in public, so some hide under the cloak of anonymity — though Encore Theatre Magazine offers quite a lot of informed and provocative opinion that wouldn’t necessarily be possible if it was written by named sources). But the trail in personally-owned blogs was long ago blazed by director Paul Miller on his remarkably honest, revealing and perceptive blog; and he has been joined by playwright David Eldridgeand even composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who posts a regular video blog on his personal website

These are variously helpful at demystifying the critical and creative processes; but it’s the public blogs that interest me even more. While public bulletin boards are full of disparate (and dare one say it, often desperate) voices clamouring for attention, a far greater degree of commitment is required for a member of the public to keep up a regular blog – and have something useful to say. And, rather like following a critic on a newspaper regularly, a regular blog also lets you get to know the writer’s voice, tastes and prejudices.

There are many out there, but my favourite is that of the West End Whingers: a brilliant exercise in style, wit and content, it is written by two people who have created a very distinctive editorial persona, and fulfil it with panache and something to say. Sean in the Stalls is the diary of a compulsive 25-year-old theatregoer who sees everything and has an opinion on it all, a more mature thatregoer John Morrison offers the wisdom of a more long-distance view, and Natasha Tripney, an aspiring arts journalist, flexes her critical muscles on her regular blog.

As with the daily papers, it’s impossible to read all of the above all of the time – you wouldn’t get any work done! – but these are the ones I read most regularly myself. No doubt I am missing other good ones – in which case, please tell me about them!