Theatrical Civility in English Blog

I first started to read a Guardian theatre blog entry by director Raz Shaw because the question of whether you need life "experience" to write or direct certain plays has an interest to me. And I would tend to agree with Mr. Shaw that it should not be a necessity if only because we then reduce theater to formulaic naturalism and start down a road of insisting that the the lead of A Man for All Seasons be a highly-religious and brilliant statesman, lawyer, and thinker. To insist on the literal is to turn our backs on unexpected insight from someone outside a given milieu.

And then, on a whim, I scrolled down to the comments. They were civil, informed, and well-reasoned. At least as of when I read them, there is an example of what online discourse could be, rather than the all too frequent taunts, put-downs, and even intimidation. How refreshing.