Dani Johns | The Guardian: Do you consider yourself a well-adjusted, functioning adult who enjoys a night of live entertainment? Or are you the type of person who turns up to a comedy gig four Malbecs deep, and decides to sit in the front row to have an in-depth chat with your mate about how bad your boss’s BO is?
6 comments:
We had so many problems in Comet regarding rowdy audience members. They would go on stage, mess around with automated elements, go behind flipper walls, wander backstage; you name it, it probably happened to us. Much like in the article, the general conclusion has been that people just have forgotten what live entertainment is like. The problem is that there is not really a solution to it yet. Maybe the problem will be fixed once some more has passed, and people hopefully reconsider what etiquette is like. Generally, I’m in the camp that we should give each other grace as we are trying to pick things back up from where we left them, but the least audiences can do is help the people putting up shows by doing the minimum. It is exhausting trying to do your duties while also having to add the factor of the audience into the equation.
I mean, I think as far as solutions go, you have to set the ground rules and then enforce them. Kick people out, no refund, deal with it.
I have been to shows where audience participation has greatly heightened the experience. But if audience participation is explicitly NOT the case, then the audience should know well enough to sit down and let the artists work.
I understand people have become fidgety and the pandemic has caused a lot of social norms to be loosened. But we are fully capable of sitting still and quiet in our classes, so our audience members should be held to a standard of buying in to the experience that they paid for, which includes sitting down, shutting up, keeping arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times, and turning off your damn cell phone. If you don't want to do that then stay home.
It would make sense to me that this problem is arising, especially as we slowly start to come back in person. It was pretty amusing to me the way the author of this article brought up the issue, and I appreciated that they kept it light hearted while also emphasizing that this behavior needs to stop. With everything being streamed and remote for over 2 years now, it makes sense that people lost the sense of theater etiquette as they could watch in whatever fashion they wanted in the comfort of their own homes. I must say I agree with Martin on in order to enforce and bring back proper etiquette, we need to set strict rules. People learn from experience, and whether that be personal or witnessing, people are gonna need to be kicked out for the lesson to be taught and learned. I remember there was a show I watched this season where the audience simply reacted inappropriately to a pretty serious play. Though there were times where laughter was appropriate to ease tension, the audience was laughing through it like it was a comedy. Really setting the tone of the piece and guiding the audience to proper etiquette is not only important for the run of the show, but also for other audience members who have kept their etiquette.
Here's the thing: you really and truly can't blame things like the pandemic for people's lack of awareness when it comes to show etiquette. Even before 2020 I remember when people would go up to the stage, when it was in a proscenium configuration, and plug in their phones to a fake plug in the wall. That person quite literally saw the plug from their seat, in an imaginary setting put on for them to entertain, and walked up steps to the stage, to charge their phone because they thought it would work. Mind you, this wasn't even an elderly person. They were literally in their mid 30's and thought, maybe this will be okay! Or even last year when theatre shows came back and people had to wear masks indoors, people would yell and scream and cause a scene and totally forget their manners because they wouldn't wear a mask. It's not the social awareness. It's people just not thinking or caring.
I found this article interesting because this is absolutely something that is present probably across all industries of entertainment. I have not necessarily noticed this in productions by my school because many attending are students or faculty/staff from the School of Drama, so we are more aware of the level of respect required during these performances. However, in other scenarios, I have noticed more casual behavior than usual. For example, I was in New York with two of my former teachers and we were in the audience on a Saturday night to see a musical on Broadway and suddenly we noticed that we were overdressed. Regardless of the shift in styles, it was surprising to see so many people wearing shorts to a Saturday night show in October. Although this is not necessarily referring to behavior as mentioned in the article, it points out that we must remember how to act and respect the space around us because it bounces back onto the energy of the performance.
I personally haven’t experienced or seen any poor etiquettes in theatre, but I wouldnt’ be surprised if this is a trend after the pandemic. The events mentioned in this article are simply ridiculous and extremely disturbing for performers and staff. The article mentions how people assume comedies are more loose than other kinds of performances, hence have a little less manners. The author also talks about the impact of social media, such as TikTok, and the various trends of ‘parodies’. I think as people watch more and more people messing around during performances and gaining publicity on social media, it sends the wrong message of ‘I can also mess around and I will also get publicity’. Obviously this is very rude, inconsiderate and disrespectful, making the jobs of theatre workers a lot more difficult. As Gaby mentioned, when Comet was running, there were several cases of audiences wondering on to the stage and even backstage. Not only is this dangerous for the audience members, I think it also ruins the relationship an audience should have with the stage, which should be respectful yet somewhat distant.
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