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Monday, April 03, 2023
Nearly Half of UK Theatre Staff May Quit Over Poor Audience Behaviour, Survey Reveals
www.broadwayworld.com: A new survey from theatre union Bectu has uncovered the extent of anti-social behaviour from theatre audiences, with many respondents agreeing it has worsened and become more extreme in nature following the pandemic.
2 comments:
Jessica Williams
said...
I find this whole phenomenon is so incredibly fascinating. It is like after the pandemic the British theatre audience reverted back to like Shakespearian type audience behavior. I think it is so incredibly interesting that this type of behavior is being chalked up to alcohol promotion and consumption within theatre venues. I mean, I fully believe that it is definitely a possibility but I feel like they may be over assuming alcohol’s influence. First, alcohol is very widely accepted in common society in Britain. Drinking culture begins young and therefore the majority of people have a considerably higher tolerance than people who come from non drinking cultures. Second, I would like to see if these statistics are the same at places like sports games in Britain as they also typically serve alcohol and have very similar structures. I am not saying that I doubt that these problems are very real and deplorable but I think that we need to dig a little deeper as to why.
I totally understand how this can be a thing. I remember when I was in 7th grade or something, there was a group of outside performers who put on a show for us during our assembly, and the behavior of some of the people in the audience was absolutely atrocious. I remember having to get talked to by our advisor and some other teachers telling us that what we did during the performance was totally unacceptable. I've also seen some other experiences like this especially when there's an open bar before or during the show. although I understand why performers are frustrated by this, I feel like if there's going to be an open bar before the show, some less than acceptable behaviors should be expected. As far as outside my high school experience, the only interesting audience interaction that I have was just when someone's dad was laughing too hard at his son during his High School Musical, which although was kind of annoying, it also did a somewhat good job getting the audience to interact with the show.
2 comments:
I find this whole phenomenon is so incredibly fascinating. It is like after the pandemic the British theatre audience reverted back to like Shakespearian type audience behavior. I think it is so incredibly interesting that this type of behavior is being chalked up to alcohol promotion and consumption within theatre venues. I mean, I fully believe that it is definitely a possibility but I feel like they may be over assuming alcohol’s influence. First, alcohol is very widely accepted in common society in Britain. Drinking culture begins young and therefore the majority of people have a considerably higher tolerance than people who come from non drinking cultures. Second, I would like to see if these statistics are the same at places like sports games in Britain as they also typically serve alcohol and have very similar structures. I am not saying that I doubt that these problems are very real and deplorable but I think that we need to dig a little deeper as to why.
I totally understand how this can be a thing. I remember when I was in 7th grade or something, there was a group of outside performers who put on a show for us during our assembly, and the behavior of some of the people in the audience was absolutely atrocious. I remember having to get talked to by our advisor and some other teachers telling us that what we did during the performance was totally unacceptable. I've also seen some other experiences like this especially when there's an open bar before or during the show. although I understand why performers are frustrated by this, I feel like if there's going to be an open bar before the show, some less than acceptable behaviors should be expected. As far as outside my high school experience, the only interesting audience interaction that I have was just when someone's dad was laughing too hard at his son during his High School Musical, which although was kind of annoying, it also did a somewhat good job getting the audience to interact with the show.
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