Thursday, April 13, 2023
Tuesday briefing: Is there really a crisis in theatre audience behaviour – or is this all overdramatic?
Theatre | The Guardian: Good morning. The next time you go to a play, you may find that the most shocking scenes are taking place off stage. That, at least, is the pattern in a spate of recent dramas in the stalls across Britain: from stories about an usher being punched after asking rowdy audience members to tone it down in Edinburgh to a heckler barracking a child actor at the Royal Opera House and illicit nude photos being taken of James Norton in the West End, there are multiplying worries that the traditional hush of the theatre is under threat.
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I have mixed feelings about the author’s stance in this article. While I agree we can’t expect everyone to be absolutely silent when eating popcorn, I also strongly dislike it when people are on their phones. Some people remember to dim the light on their phone and silence it, but many times people forget to. Theatre practitioners work so hard to make their envisioned world come to life, why make it even more difficult for them? Audience members need to be more respectful of their fellow man, like someone coughing, sneezing, or even snoring. I think the author also underestimates how often front of house workers are treated poorly. I wonder if this has been a gradual shift or if it has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Based on my experience, people seemed to have forgotten what decent human behavior was while they were stuck behind a Zoom screen. I had the luxury of attending many Broadway shows while growing up due to my proximity to New York City and it always felt like an event to dress up for. When did people start treating Broadway like a shitty open-mic night? You kind of hope that people who are treating staff like this are intoxicated, because who in their right mind treats another human being like that?
There has been plenty going on in the world of audience behavior. It feels like every week there's a new usher story. Traditionally, theatre audiences have been expected to be quiet, respectful, and attentive throughout the performance. However, in recent years, there has been a push towards more interactive and immersive theatre experiences that encourage audience participation. Some theatres have experimented with allowing audiences to interact with the performers, clap, cheer, and even move around during the performance. This type of theatre challenges traditional norms and can create a more engaging experience for the audience. However, it can also be controversial, with some arguing that it can detract from the performance and be distracting for both the performers and other audience members. As theatre continues to evolve and experiment with new forms, the question of audience behavior will remain an important consideration. Above all else, look for context clues, and don’t be an asshole.
I think this article is really interesting because as collide a feeling shortchanged, Theater is something that usually elicits a reaction. There’s always moments in a play, where everybody is tuned in the audience is completely silent and we’re all just in a trance by what we are watching that’s when you know that that is amazing play , but recently this this is not in achieved by as many works I don’t know if the audience is just different or the works just aren’t at that level right now, but it’s become really hard for even me a avid theater consumer to enjoy a play to its fullest. rowdy audience members is nothing new to the theater industry. We have always had at least a few people in the audience who are not there to just enjoy the contact and want to make a scene people love the attention and honestly it’s just a noxious but I think that sure it’s something that can be controlled a little bit more and maybe people just haven’t been taught theater etiquette in a while, but I am not seeing it at a point where it’s really a problem I’m just seeing it as a thing that has always happened and right now it’s happening a little bit more. As much as I wish everybody in every audience would be attentive and care about what’s going on that’s not something we can really ask for.
I think there definitely is something to be said about audience behavior and its recent trend. There are times when we clearly live in a world of entitlement, as made very obvious by the examples given by the article. Audiences have always been unruly to a degree, but recently it’s been getting out of hand in my opinion. Two weeks ago, there was an article on the blog about people pooping in Broadway playhouses. It’s crazy how much the pandemic has changed how people act in public, completely inappropriately. I think that people probably forget that theater isn’t just a movie – there are performers that you are putting on the spot by disrupting a performance. Even something as simple as using a phone can be distracting to the person next to you, so I can’t imagine how irritating it would be to have someone belting out a song over the performers.
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