The 8th Avenue Observer was founded as an answer to the lack of creative original content on the Internet discussing Broadway and New York Theatre. A considerable amount of time is spent discussing theatre, but there is a deficit in the type of conversation that surrounded this medium. Unlike film and television, the theatre community has yet to find a way to utilize the Internet to be a forum for ideas and growth. Although, there are sites that feature news updates and popular message boards, there aren’t any websites that act as a place to come and read well thought out articles about theatre that hope to engage the audience in addition to (hopefully) amusing them. This is what The 8th Avenue Observer aims to be: a new facet in theatrical journalism in the form of an online magazine. It will provide a forum for thoughtful and in-depth, yet accessible ideas about Broadway and theatre: both where it is now and where it’s going. It will serve as a platform for discussion that not only explores theatre, but also helps fuel it. The 8th Avenue Observer believes the best way to make the theatrical community stronger is by raising the level of discussion that surrounds it. The best way to do that is by asking questions that both enlighten, entertain, and challenge. The generation The 8th Avenue Observer targets grew up being mesmerized by the lights of Broadway and dreaming that one day they could be part of that. Now that generation is the future of the theatrical community and The 8th Avenue Observer wants to help ensure that there’s a thriving theatrical world to be part of. Through interviews, in-depth analysis, interactive features, and reviews The 8th Avenue Observer will contribute to an ever-evolving theatrical community. Theatre has always been based on exploring ideas and what it means to present in the world, The 8th Avenue Observer not only believes in that tradition, but hopes to encourage it off-stage as well as on.
