Times Online: "Are theatre audiences more badly behaved than they once were?
Certainly, many actors will tell you so, citing occasions when spectators have chattered, answered their phones, loudly canoodled in the stalls or even had sex in one of the stage boxes. But maybe actors are getting edgier and more combative, too."
5 comments:
I think that technology has increased the amount and types of disruptions that we deal with in the theatre. Take away cellphones, cameras and video recorders and you take away most of the things that piss people in the theatre off. Of course I'm being very general but the most common disruptions tend to be from these things. Do I think actors are more edgy? Probably but I also think they have a cause to be. It can really be hard to ignore something that takes you completely out of your environment as an actor. Sometimes that frustration manifests itself in not so appropriate ways but I can understand it. I think it will take a while for people to get used to the fact that people have cell phones and that they will sometimes ring in the theatre. Just do everyone a favor and DON'T ANSWER IT.
I agree with Devorah that technology has increased disruptions, but recently the theatre has gone from a place of manners to your own living room. In some theatres people are allowed to have popcorn, snacks, and drinks in the theatre with them. There also use to be time when going to the theatre was a black tie affairs. While these are all small details I think that they help to explain why audiences have started to "misbehave" in the theatre. Because people are allowed to act a certain way in other venues they have now applied this to the theatre.
I don't always dress up to go to the theater and I don't always sit in my most ladylike way when I get there (thank you Broadway houses with 4 inches of leg room) but I check my phone 5 times before the curtain goes up and have no qualms about shooting dirty looks at the meany whose phone rings in the middle of the most emotional number. That person has just ruined my day. They deserve to have their phone ring an obnoxious disco beat in the middle of their child's graduation ceremony, their wedding, or their job next interview.
I wish there were a way to simply block signals so that cell phones couldn't ring, that wouldn't interfere with medical devices or microphones/speakers. I don't think there is a way to do this, but if there was it would solve much of the problem. The video taping is just ridiculous as well as flash photography, but as we already tell people this is illegal, i don't know if anything else can be done. But maybe having ushers check cell phones to be on vibrate on the way in could work? or some sort of checks. It's usually just people who forget. I don;t think anyone wants to be that guy...
I was always led to believe audience members were much tamer in now. For example, the actually come to see the show and not to be seen and socialize. There was once a time that theatre was rather low art and the house light were kept up and people chattered around the performance. If actor's back then good do it and still make a name for themselves than perhaps our actors need to learn to work through a few distractions. Yes, there is a new wave of decorum in the theatre but actors only hurt their reps with fans more when they freak out because I guarantee you most of the time they stop a show because of a disturbance it's about them and not the others audience members who are being disturbed.
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