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Friday, March 24, 2023
London theatres may lock up audiences’ phones after illicit James Norton photos
Theatre | The Guardian: Theatre audiences in London’s West End could be made to lock up their phones to prevent illicit images of actors being taken during performances.
The suggestion comes after naked photos of James Norton on stage in A Little Life were published on MailOnline.
5 comments:
Jasper
said...
This is not the first time an incident like this has happened and every time it happens it is even more saddening. Audience behavior has gotten so bad recently but I am still surprised that it has gotten to the point where audience members are so deeply disrespecting performers and their privacy. It is one thing to be rowdy and another to film a show without permission but taking photos of performers while they are naked without their consent is a completely different level of disrespect. There should always be a level of trust between performers and the audience members and acts like this completely destroy that trust. At least here in the US, some shows, like Take Me Out, have tried to overcome this by locking phones up but as we have seen, even this doesn’t always work. I hope that at some point soon, we can get to a point where audiences are once again respectful enough to be trusted.
It is so nasty that audience members would come to a show where actors are putting 110% into their performances and being really vulnerable in front of an audience, and record them after being explicitly told not to. I think live theatre actors are not shown the same respect as film actors, even though they arguably deserve the utmost level of respect. As elementary as it feels to lock up peoples phones at a show, I think it would be necessary depending on the show to secure the safety of the actors. I went to a production of spring awakening where the actress playing Wendla was shirtless onstage for a scene. She was only about 19 or 20, and it worries me that creeps in the audience could record that. It’s different for every production, but if there is nudity or other vulnerable scenes onstage, it’s incredibly important to have a conversation with the actors and put policies in place to protect their privacy.
I feel as though the venue should lock up phones during the production. So many comedy shows in America lock up the audience’s phone for various reasons. However, I do recall seeing articles about individuals getting called out or harassed for using their phone as an aid during the show. I do firmly believe that there is a way to ensure that phone use for pictures and videos does not occur, while also not discriminating against individuals. It’s unfortunate that this is a continued conversation, and that these incidents are occurring as they are invasive and immoral. I find it interesting how some productions, such as Six, invite people to film; I’m glad that some have been able to make it work for their shows, and maybe we will see more of this in the future. There really is such a value to letting people take videos if there is no harm to the shoe, as these clips have the ability to go viral.
It is interesting to me that different celebrities get harassed at different levels. Many celebrities have rules about being filmed/photographed, especially in vulnerable or expository places, such as comedy venues or on film sets (even if the film allows the pictures and videos.) It is upsetting that popular theatre artists seem to get less respect than other popular creators. I think that taking phones would be reasonable. However, I do see it posing a real risk to many audience members. For example, my boyfriend uses his phone to track his blood sugar but is the type of person to have an interest in seeing this production. However, if he lost access to that data, he could get very sick or have a seizure during the show. It would be nice if there was a technology that could detect all of the phones in a selected area and disable their cameras, kind of like how CMU's wifi limits certain activities/sites within the campus.
There are risks on both sides of this battle. When actors are being vulnerable on stage there is always the risk that someone will capture it in a way that was not intended. But technology is so integrated into our lives that it is hard for me to see this coming to fruition. In this day and age, people use their phones for so many things beyond illegally recording performances. Some people use their phones to quite literally stay alive like in the case of diabetics. On top of that, if there was some kind of emergency it would be nearly impossible to get people their phones back. I do think that locking phones up has some merit. I don’t think that performers should be put in a position where they have to be okay with unintended photos ending up online somewhere. It is not fair to anyone involved and maybe people should just be respectful.
5 comments:
This is not the first time an incident like this has happened and every time it happens it is even more saddening. Audience behavior has gotten so bad recently but I am still surprised that it has gotten to the point where audience members are so deeply disrespecting performers and their privacy. It is one thing to be rowdy and another to film a show without permission but taking photos of performers while they are naked without their consent is a completely different level of disrespect. There should always be a level of trust between performers and the audience members and acts like this completely destroy that trust. At least here in the US, some shows, like Take Me Out, have tried to overcome this by locking phones up but as we have seen, even this doesn’t always work. I hope that at some point soon, we can get to a point where audiences are once again respectful enough to be trusted.
It is so nasty that audience members would come to a show where actors are putting 110% into their performances and being really vulnerable in front of an audience, and record them after being explicitly told not to. I think live theatre actors are not shown the same respect as film actors, even though they arguably deserve the utmost level of respect. As elementary as it feels to lock up peoples phones at a show, I think it would be necessary depending on the show to secure the safety of the actors. I went to a production of spring awakening where the actress playing Wendla was shirtless onstage for a scene. She was only about 19 or 20, and it worries me that creeps in the audience could record that. It’s different for every production, but if there is nudity or other vulnerable scenes onstage, it’s incredibly important to have a conversation with the actors and put policies in place to protect their privacy.
I feel as though the venue should lock up phones during the production. So many comedy shows in America lock up the audience’s phone for various reasons. However, I do recall seeing articles about individuals getting called out or harassed for using their phone as an aid during the show. I do firmly believe that there is a way to ensure that phone use for pictures and videos does not occur, while also not discriminating against individuals. It’s unfortunate that this is a continued conversation, and that these incidents are occurring as they are invasive and immoral. I find it interesting how some productions, such as Six, invite people to film; I’m glad that some have been able to make it work for their shows, and maybe we will see more of this in the future. There really is such a value to letting people take videos if there is no harm to the shoe, as these clips have the ability to go viral.
It is interesting to me that different celebrities get harassed at different levels. Many celebrities have rules about being filmed/photographed, especially in vulnerable or expository places, such as comedy venues or on film sets (even if the film allows the pictures and videos.) It is upsetting that popular theatre artists seem to get less respect than other popular creators. I think that taking phones would be reasonable. However, I do see it posing a real risk to many audience members. For example, my boyfriend uses his phone to track his blood sugar but is the type of person to have an interest in seeing this production. However, if he lost access to that data, he could get very sick or have a seizure during the show. It would be nice if there was a technology that could detect all of the phones in a selected area and disable their cameras, kind of like how CMU's wifi limits certain activities/sites within the campus.
There are risks on both sides of this battle. When actors are being vulnerable on stage there is always the risk that someone will capture it in a way that was not intended. But technology is so integrated into our lives that it is hard for me to see this coming to fruition. In this day and age, people use their phones for so many things beyond illegally recording performances. Some people use their phones to quite literally stay alive like in the case of diabetics. On top of that, if there was some kind of emergency it would be nearly impossible to get people their phones back. I do think that locking phones up has some merit. I don’t think that performers should be put in a position where they have to be okay with unintended photos ending up online somewhere. It is not fair to anyone involved and maybe people should just be respectful.
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