Keith Morris - the Theatre in Wales web site editor and designer

A profile by Swithin Fry

Swithin Fry: May 1, 1998

Photographer Keith Morris has a simple message for the theatre companies of Wales: wake up we're entering a new milenium. It's the computer age

Keith, whose photographic work takes up most of his time, started a Theatre in Wales web site about four years ago as a way of using the free web space that came with his Internet Service

"I was looking for information about theatre in wales and found that there was litle or nothing on the web. There were one or two pages put up by fans of particular companies but it was very patchy and out of date. There was certainly no one-stop-shop, no resource that you could go to and have an overview of theatre in Wales. I wanted to use my site for something a little more interesting than 'what I did on my holidays' - which is what a lot of personal sites are unfortunately about. I though that there was no point bitching about the lack of resources because that's the whole point of the web - it gives you the opportunity to do something positive"

Keith, 40, who lives in Aberystwyth but is known throughout Wales for his original photographic work, started in the photography business through theatre photography commissions. It was this that inspired him to 'give something back' through the web. His computer work, which started as little more than a hobby, has metamorphosed into a theatre in Wales reference site which receives up to 50 hits a day."If you go looking for a combination of the words "theatre in wales", or for any of the main production companies, 99 times out of 100 you'll be directed to my site"

What started as a theatre site has evolved into a performance site with dance, a puppet company, a circus skills company and an opera company joining the ranks of drama. This is where his exhortation, or warning even, to welsh theatre applies: "Theatre companies should appreciate the importance of having a presence on the web. More and more people are using the web as their first, and sometimes only, source of reference. If they don't find anything there about a particular company they often assume that the company doesn't exist. This technology has to be taken seriously"

The site is fully interactive so even a brief passing mention of a marginally related company or theatre event can be explored. "I'm trying to give as wide a spectrum of performance activity in wales as possible. If a person comes to the site not knowing the range of activity that there is here in wales, or having a preconception that theatre in wales is of a particular type, hopefully they'll have their eyes opened by the breadth of work going on here. That's another plus for having this 'umbrella' site. The whole point is to give the casual enquirer into one company the way of actually finding out about other companies in Wales"

Keith is adamant that his site will have a future. At the moment it has traditional mainstream companies, small experimental ones, profiles, company artistic policies and reviews of productions, books and festivals related theatre events. "But it's big enough to be much more flexible. I want it to be more meaty, so if there are writers out there who have something to say about theatre in Wales, someone with a particular view on any aspect of theatre in Wales, then get in touch, I would to have their material hosted on my site"

Although Keith has approached various funding bodies for support, as yet none have shown more than a passing interest. "I fund it entirely myself. The trouble is that the site falls between several stools. It's not quite marketing, because it doesn't specifically deal with current shows, so it's not like a 'what's on this week' site . It deals more with the artistic policies and philosophies of the companies. I'm still negotiating for funding , but at the moment it's all done purely off my own bat. Getting sponsorship for web sites is difficult anyway - it's a technolgy that people havn't yet got their heads around and a website can be a very intangible and amorphous thing for would-be advertisers or sponsors"

source: Western Mail