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Twitter, the social service where users share their thoughts in 140 characters or less, has launched a new home for discussions on stage performances.
Dubbed Twitter Stage, the Twitter-run account launched Sunday night in time for the 69th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The account, which Twitter formally announced in a blog post Monday, was used last night to share key moments from the awards show, which honors the year’s best performances in theater on Broadway.
Over the last few years, Twitter has become a destination for people to converse about big events. Twitter users head to the service to share thoughts on everything from the Super Bowl to awards shows to political debates. Seeing the value in those connections, many TV shows have used Twitter as a vehicle to engage audiences in real time, asking them about their thoughts on certain topics and encouraging them to share items with their followers.
With Twitter Stage, Twitter is taking a more active role in bringing those “conversations” together. The service is designed to be a single home for users to see what’s happening with onstage performances, like plays, musicals and ballets. On Sunday night at the Tonys, Twitter Stage was used to share comments from celebrities, pictures from the event uploaded to Twitter, and the winners of the awards.
Twitter Stage is the latest account that the company has launched for specific topics, which include TwitterTV, TwitterMovies and TwitterSports, among others. They all focus on their respective areas and share content from around Twitter.
According to Twitter, some of the highlights last night that prompted the most attention on Twitter Stage included “Fun Home” winning the award for best musical. Appearances by performers Helen Mirren, Kelli O’Hara, and Kristin Chenoweth also prompted heavy reactions on the service.
So far, Twitter hasn’t said how else it will use Twitter Stage and whether it will expand to concerts or even other awards shows, like the Academy Awards. For now, it appears onstage performances are central to the account’s mission and not to be an all-encompassing home for entertainment discussions.
Twitter declined to comment about Stage beyond what was shared in its blog post.
