Refreshingly Unsafe: Artistic Director Stephanie Ybarra Challenges Traditional Rules of Engagement at Center Stage

BmoreArt | Baltimore Contemporary Art: Theatergoers, picture this: You’re in your seat dutifully being as quiet as possible. You’re watching a story unfold onstage when, out of the corner of your eye, you spy somebody a few seats or rows over raising her phone before her face. She’s so engrossed by what’s going she wants to take a photo. No flash, no audible shutter click, just a quick raised smartphone. Would you summon an usher? What if—hold onto your pearls—she was so enrapt by the play she verbally responded. Answered a rhetorical question. Right on’d a character. Would you shush her?