ALDER’S ADAPTATION: I always find that I get more out of a performance if I study up a little beforehand. Going to a concert? Listen to the CD. Watching a movie? Read a review. So I wanted to point out a video that Theatre Three Executive Director Jac Alder made about the company’s current production of Trysts in Toledo. Alder adapted the Spanish play for English-speaking audiences and talks about the process of delving into different versions of the play to come up with the one that we see at Theatre Three. The play runs through Jan. 18, so if you haven’t caught it yet, no time like the present. You can also watch costume designer Bruce Coleman talk about dressing the show and master carpenter Jeffrey Schmidt discuss building the sets.

ANIMALS ON ART: Mike Gerra, co-owner of the contemporary space art251 in Keller (and one of my favorite local arts bloggers) unearthed the above video this week. It’s been kicking around for a while, but for the unfamiliar, it’s a claymation video of various animals whose voices come from average Americans being interviewed about the nature of art. It was created by Aardman Animations, the studio behind the Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. So if you find anthropomorphism funny (and really, it’s the concept the whole history of cartoons is build on) then it’s worth your 7 minutes and 12 seconds. Mike says that he’s been thinking about the “what is art” question and is in the process of formulating the answer to the that question on his blog. Based on his intelligent track record, I’ll be curious what he comes up with.

DIGITAL GRANADA: Finally, if you haven’t caught the Granada Theater’s YouTube channel, you are missing out. The Granada tapes every show in the theater and puts them up on the Web shortly after. The video is pretty simple — one camera mounted either at the back of the ground floor or at the front of the balcony looking down on the stage. But the sound quality is excellent as it comes straight from the board. I missed the Polyphonic Spree’s holiday show from a few weeks back, but after watching the clips here, I feel like I at least got a taste.