Mad's Theatre is a brand new website with lots of unique features and functionality.
This page is here to offer help in understanding how this site functionally operates.
Home Page
The Mad's Theatre home page is consists of three sections for each of the below, with details on how information is presented in each.
News & Reviews
Both Press Releases and Articles/Reviews are published together in the News & Reviews section on the home page and throughout this website.
Only eight items will be displayed on the home page.
A single "stickied" announcement from Mad's Theatre may be displayed first.
The most recent seven (or six in the event of a "stickied" announcement) Press Releases and Articles/Reviews will be displayed in descending order from their Published Date.
Upcoming Performances
Five submitted and approved productions will be displayed in descending order of their very next performance date.
Upcoming Auditions
Five submitted and approved auditions submitted will be displayed in descending order of their very next audition date.
Submitting Information
At the core of Mad's Theatre is the ability for the performing arts community to control their information. This ability to let the performing arts community log in and submit/edit/delete their own data allows information to be immediately available when submitted/changed/removed. This should eventually give our community confidence that information on Mad's Theatre is the best representation of the activities and news in our community.
Creating A Mad's Theatre User
Any individual may create a Mad's Theatre user by submitting their email/username on the Create New Account page.
After creating a new account, Mad's Theatre admins will approve (or reject in instances of spam) the new user within 48 hours. The email address used will then receive an email with a one-time link to log in and set a password.
After a user is approved, new information can be submitted using the links in the Submit section at the bottom of every page.
Information Approval
All information that is submitted will be written to our database, however only approved information will be available on the home page and linked to throughout the website.
Information will be approved (or not approved in instances of spam) within 48 hours from submission.
Once approved, any changes made by the individual that created that information will be immediately reflected throughout the website.
Mad's Theatre Community Members
Mad's Theatre Community Members are automatically pre-approved with all content submitted.
Mad's Theatre Community Members are individuals that are known to be active members in the Madison, Wisconsin performing arts community and are trusted to have their submissions immediately available.
To become a Mad's Theatre Community Member, start the conversation with us on our general contact form.
Is This Website Doing Something... Weird?
This is a brand new website after all :)
If you find something that looks like it is not working as you would expect, please do not hesitate to let us know on our General Contact form.
It always helps to know which page you are using, what you expected to happen, and what actually happened.
FAQs
My production/audition already exists?
Today, Mad's Theatre is creating as many productions/auditions as we're aware of. And when we create your productions/auditions, we won't copy your details here but will instead link directly to any page with the best set of your production/audition information.
If you want ownership of the productions/auditions that Mad's Theatre creates, we can easily transfer that. Contact us on the General Contact form.
Eventually, any productions/auditions that Mad's Theatre creates and have not been transferred will not be surfaced on the home page and will not be available until a week before the production/auditions open. To have your production/audition on the home page, you will need to submit your productions/auditions or get the one Mad's Theatre created transferred.
What if you create a duplicate? That's fine too! We'll be checking and if we find any duplicates of productions/auditions that we create, we'll just remove ours in favor of yours.
How safe is this website to use?
About as safe as any other website you may use and log in to.
First, your personal information (that is not publicly published on your Profile) will never be sold/distributed/used outside of the context of Mad's Theatre. No individual oustide of the Mad's Theatre admins (of which there is currently one) will have access to your username, email, and contact details.
Second, Mad's Theatre will never solicit financial help from any individuals using email/text. If you receive any direct messages asking for money, that is a scam. It is unlikely Mad's Theatre will ever ask for financial contributions outside of the 'Buy a cup of coffee' button. But if we do, it will be in-person conversations or through information directly available on this website.
Third, Mad's Theatre will never ask for credit card information. Mad's Theatre will never hold personal financial information in any form on this website, including the underlying database. If you receive any messages asking for credit card information, that is a scam.
Fourth, all traffic is encrypted with our SSL certificate between your device/computer and our hosting provider using the HTTPS protocol. In your browser, you should be able to see an indication of this (like the lock icon in Chrome).
Fifth, the infrustructure behind Mad's Theatre will be kept up-to-date with all security updates.
Sixth, in the event of any known hack, Mad's Theatre is committed to immediately acknowledging all known details.
Why is information not showing up?
Did Mad's Theatre admins create the production/audition?
If yes, then the information will only be available on the Production and Audition pages.
If no, then the most likely reason is that the individual that created that information is not a Mad's Theatre Community Member and that the information has not yet been approved.
Approval statuses can be monitored on the My Account page of the individual that created that information.
If the information is Approved and still not available, then 'Houston, we may have a problem.' Let us know on our General Contact form.
Why do certain links open up websites outside of Mad's Theatre?
All information submitted from non-admins will open within the Mad's Theatre website, with the exception of Articles/Reviews.
The reason why information submitted by admins opens to pages outside of Mad's Theatre is to still be able to include performing arts activities happening in the Madison area while respecting an organization's ability to own the content on their own websites. They didn't submit their information here, therefore it is not the right thing to do to copy their details/descriptions/etc on to this website.
It is hoped that as Mad's Theatre grows, that this functionality around opening links externally will eventually be retired.
