Hundevad Productions

A post mortem about the Wikipedia Blog I wrote.

Writing a Wikipedia blog is something I never thought I would do. It was easier to do than I thought, but I was also surprised by the credibility checks Wikipedia does in order to post your article. For example, I wasn’t allowed to just post a Wikipedia article to their website to be added to their inventory. Instead, I wrote it and when I went to publish, I had to verify myself and my computer, and then agree that what I wrote was best and true to my knowledge. Now, the article is under submission and review from the Wikipedia team, and until then it remains a draft in the wikipedia-verse. Once it is approved, it will go online and I will get a notification that it posted. 

My Wikipedia article is about the William Inge Theatre Festival in Independence, Kansas. To complete this assignment I stayed within the realm of theatre and I thought that there just had to be some play or some director or something that isn’t on Wikipedia yet. So I just started searching random names and plays that came to mind over the course of a couple days. Finally, it hit me like a lightbulb. Currently, I am in Kansas for the Inge Theatre Arts Festival. I am an employee this year to the festival. It was the first time for me too that I had even heard of this ‘fest’ and the first time being asked to come work for it. I typed in William Inge and Wikipedia had an article for that. I typed in Inge Theatre Festival and boom, blank screen. I smiled. I found my missing link.  

First, I actually researched similar topics on Wikipedia to gather information about what type of information should I post, how much, etc. The Fringe Festival has a Wikipedia page, (another impactful theatrical festival) and even links out to various states’ Fringe festivals, including my home state of Minnesota. This helped a lot because, 1. it proved theatre festivals are a real thing, and 2. it helped me outline my own article. 

From there, I researched what I wanted to talk about: the history, the significance, the impact, and the outreach the Inge festival has and had. There is an official Inge Festival website with this information, as well as the town’s website and I got other information from other google searches. It then became just like any other paper or essay to write. Laying out a coherent essay with whats, whys, and wheres just became reading and writing what I learned, and arranging it in a nice order to read. 

I wanted to focus on the broader scope of the festival, since it didn’t have an official Wikipedia page, I thought it would be fitting to first describe it and its history and as time goes on we can add honorees throughout the years. Since it is in its 39th year there have been over 100 people awarded and honored at the festival with their plays either being presented, workshopped, or discussed in a forum. It would be a lot to do in one sitting, but it’s an overarching goal of the article, and just might take a few months to do all the correct research. I started with a broad history, how it came to be and why, and focused on this year’s honoree, Lynn Nottage, in order to boost its relevance and timeliness, whereas I felt if I started from its inception, it may feel outdated. 

I got to learn a lot about something I am also participating in this year, and that provided perhaps a conflict of interest but I am a neutral party to this festival as an employee, and I remained that way in writing the article. Of course, I wrote some things about the impact it has had and the positive consequences from the festival, but that is the point of these gatherings. Even from the mission statement of the Inge Festival, the purpose is to provide all an experience in theatre. I hope I did it justice. Overall, this was a fun experience to do, and I can now cross ‘write a Wikipedia article’ off my bucket list. As always…write, and good things will happen.