Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Let's drink to the end of the intermission chug
globeandmail.com: "In Canada, there are only two places where you are guaranteed to see alcoholic beverages being chugged: frat parties and theatre lobbies."
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5 comments:
This article brings up an interesting reason for why theater has lost its popularity. When going to the movies, people can dress however they like, eat and drink, and just be relaxed. Theater's uptight atmosphere has tainted the theater experience as a whole. If theaters were to bring in a more comfortable atmosphere, people would be far more inclined to attend performances.
i understand both sides of this story. It makes since that one should respect the theater and not destroy the carpet or seats with food and drink, but at the same time i think that the rules hinder one from experiencing any relaxation. If there were a way to balance the two, it would be ideal. It is a complex issue but i do think that the "uptight" attitude of the theatre culture can be reduced a bit. it should be a more relaxing and fun environment, where the patron feels able to do what he or she pleases.
I loved going to Comedia and eating dinner while I was watching the show. It adds to the relaxed atmosphere of it. But making the portions of food that they sell smaller is also a very valid way of getting around the noise problem you get with food in a theatre. Maybe we could do eating and non-eating productions like the smoking and non-smoking sides of restaurants.
I agree with a lot of the solutions in this article. The idea of reducing the size of the drink during intermission not only benefits the audience members who have to chug their drinks and end up losing thier moneys worth but it helps with sales as well. I also think that even though we are starting to let the audience bring in food and drinks during performances I think it depends on the show, the space, and what kind of atmosphere is going to be created. Its better to have someone with a bag of popcorn during a concert than during King Lear.
This article provides an interesting analysis of letting drinks into the theatre. Being very uptight about banning food and drinks in the theatre seems unreasonable because theatre is supposed to be a live performance, so the audience shouldn't be stifled so much. There are some theatre/restaurant combinations that do a meal and a show together, so it certainly isn't unheard of to allow food and drink in.
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