Why The Shorty Awards Are Important

In 2010, the Reduced Shakespeare Company won the prestigious Shorty Award, which honors “the best producers of short (140 characters or less) real-time content.” Translated, that means the award is given to the person or company who uses and exploits the social network Twitter to its maximum effect. The Shorty Awards have been called “the Oscars of Twitter” by CNN and USA Today.

We were honored and thrilled — and we’d like to win again.

Here are the two main reasons:

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Episode 200. Interviewing The Interviewer

“The tables get turned in this week’s landmark episode! Reed Martin and Matt Rippy interview podcast host Austin Tichenor, who reveals the history, the mystery, the highlights, and the lowlights of our first 200 weeks of RSC podcasting. Featuring intimate connections, backstage geekery, a celebrity montage, and the reasons why we haven’t yet (and probably now won’t) win a Podcast Award. (MP3. Length 28:49)

Podcast: Download (26.4MB)

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Episode 179. Comedy That Offends

“It’s another edition of “My Coffee With Reed and Austin,” who discuss the recent South Park controversy and the RSC’s stumbles into offensive territory. Featuring authentic cafe ambience, dressing room debates, excerpts from Western Civilization: The Complete Musical (abridged), feedback feedback, and the advantages of losing your hearing. (MP3. Length 21:21)

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Episode 170. The Shorty Awards

“We attended the 2010 Shorty Awards last week in New York City — and we won in the Cultural Institution category! We kept the microphone going backstage and at the after-party, and got to talk with Shorty Award co-creator Greg Galant; Janis Krums, the winner of the Real-Time Photo of the Year; Charlie Todd, founder of Improv Everywhere; and Gunnery Sergeant Chanin Nuntavong from the United States Marine Corps. Featuring a special appearance from Mrs. Stephen Fry and an extempore Shakespearean recitation from Newark (NJ) Mayor and Shorty Award winner (in Government) Cory Booker. (MP3. Length 20:41)

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“THE OSCARS OF TWITTER!” Winners Announced March 3

The Reduced Shakespeare Company is a finalist in the second annual Shorty Awards, which honors “the best producers of shortShorty Awards Logo (140 characters or less) real-time content.” Translated, that means the award is given to the person or company who uses and exploits the social network Twitter to its maximum effect. The Shorty Awards have been called “the Oscars of Twitter” by CNN and USA Today.

Well, who else should win a Shorty Award but a Reduced Shakespeare Company?! We’ve been producers of reduced content for years.

We Tweet mostly ‘cuz it’s fun. Twitter’s a great way to mini-blog about what we’re up to, to dialogue with our fans, and to spread the love about other things and people we see and love and want to proselytize about. But to get an award for it? That’d be awesome.

Shorty Awards are given in a number of categories (each designated by a hashtag), from #advertising, #apps, and #art to #tech, #travel, and #weird. We’re a finalist in the #culturalinstitution category, primarily because there is no #theatre category.

Final voting ends Friday February 5 at noon EST. Anybody with an active Twitter account can vote (you can’t just create a Twitter account to vote, they’re too clever to allow that). Finalists are judged not only on the quality of their Tweets, but also the number and quality of your votes!  So when you go to the Shorty Awards website and fill in the vote box (“I vote for @reduced for a Shorty Award in #culturalinstitution because…”), please make the reason cool and brief!

Numbers count too. As of today, we have almost 2500 Followers! If only ten percent of you vote, we’ll win.

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