Thursday, January 25, 2024
Misbehaving audiences want to go viral. Here’s how theater could take the mic back
Datebook: In each incident, the actual performances — the art for which audiences bought tickets — remained in the background or didn’t even make it into the viral video’s camera frame. That’s not what was interesting. What’s interesting is us. The theater is merely a site for the execution of proper decorum, and the only possible narrative is the decorum’s violation.
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This article brought up a very important theme of how theater is a form of art that does an incredibly good job of pulling people from all kinds of places and backgrounds into a shared experience together. While people from different backgrounds might interpret the show differently, they are still fundamentally able to achieve a shared experience, which is very difficult to achieve in an increasingly separated world. This is a unique opportunity in a world that is normally lacking connection between these classes. While this might be beneficial for everybody involved, it does add complications, as described in the article. People from different backgrounds want to experience performance in different ways, which may not be compatible. This is not an easy problem to solve, because in some way it involves alienating one group of people. I do not think that including audience interaction and control is the be-all, end-all solution to this problem, although it can be helpful in certain circumstances.
I've said it multiple times in response to articles like these, but, in my opinion, the best way to act in a theatre is a way that doesn't hinder the experience for other audience members. I really think it's that simple. Theatre is a medium that is meant to be enjoyed by disparate groups of people and the reason that works is because once you sit down to see a show, you loose your identity as an individual with their own traits and blend in to the whole that is the crowd. To help this happen I feel you shouldn't do anything to draw attention to yourself. I really don't understand how people can go into a show and ruin it for other people. If I did such a thing I would be mortified.
The absolute audacity and disrespect that some people have is insane. To pay money and go to a theater just to cause issues and make the experience worse for everyone around you takes a certain level of self-entitlement that I used to consider impressive but now is commonplace. Also, some shows may encourage singing along with hands in the air but that’s usually just concerts and the occasional musical that heavily mimics a concert ie. SIX. I don't think singing at shows is acceptable in any other context than that. And the throwing of stuff at people is getting out of hand people throw their actual phones, which could seriously hurt the performers not to mention just being a stupid idea because it’s an expensive device you’re now intentionally breaking, shooting bracelets at performers like Reneé Rapp almost got hit Square in the face with one last fall. The decorum at shows needs to remain calm and collected, concerts are a different environment sure, a louder one where you can sing along but it is not acceptable to try and interfere with the performance.
What this article is getting at is essentially what rules and regulations can paying audience members be expected to follow and obey at a performance they paid for. And while I think these are interesting debates I still think a certain amount of respect should be shown not only for performers but also for the other audience members who paid for the show. I did like how to article talked about how shows might have to become more interactive to adapt to how modern audiences seem to like to behave during live entertainment. But at the same time, I think they kind of miss the point, behavior at shows is also for the people around you, I think heckling, or obnoxiously singing along or making a scene is simply rude and self-centered. The article talks about how it might just be our COVID behavior wearing off but I do not like giving rude attendees an excuse, sometimes we cannot just think about ourselves. I think a space that you are sharing with possibly hundreds of other people is one of those places.
Theater etiquette is SO important I cannot stress it enough. It is so disrespectful and disheartening to go to a show, whether it be a tour stopping at the Benedum, a Broadway performance in NYC, a high school show, a community theater show, etc and see people interacting with the actors on stage as they’re performing. I’ve been to professional shows where audience members sing along with the actors. Another one of my biggest pet peeves is when the person sitting in front of you is leaning forward. I went to see Shucked on Broadway over winter break and it is safe to say that it is for sure one of the best and FUNNIEST shows I've seen. It’s really sad the production closed as soon as it did. Nonetheless, the person sitting in front of me was leaning over to see the stage the WHOLE time, and it was SO annoying because their head was blocking my view.
The behavior of the audience in theatre is a conversation that has been going on since before the pandemic. I remember back in the 2019-2020 season at American Conservatory Theatre that a program slip had “House Rules of Play”. This had come to be because a season subscriber had complained that a group of women were laughing too loud during a performance, and, if I remember correctly, an usher did ask the group of women to be quiet. It turns out I still have that program slip, and the House Rules were quite simple: All and any laughter is welcome; We encourage all response; Theatre is alive and precious in that aliveness; Turn off cellphones; Don’t take photos or videos during the performance; and, encouraging everyone to be together in the spaces. At the time, ACT understood that to bring more people to see shows, they needed to change how they allowed the audience to interact with the work. This led to full blown training with House Management, Patron Services, Ushers, and Security on how they handled situations of potential audience violation of the House Rules. I’ve found that some of my most memorable moments working on a show is when the audience is allowed to engage in outside the norm. You can feel the aliveness and the energy in the room. Which is one of the reasons that Student Matinees are some of my favorites, there’s an energy that tells you how much the audience wants to be there and they’re so vocal about it.
Pfff theatre is like a social experiment for those who pursue it as a career and those who go to watch it. I always find it interesting to watch theatre in different states and cities because the culture of the area the performance is in awkwardly affects how the audience sometimes reacts to different bits. Like in a more rural conservative area, a joke in a play may get a few crickets, but the same joke in a bustling city that leans liberal it’s a hit. Not to mention tension in theatre is, as the article mentioned, affected by Covid. I liked that it phrased Covid’s affect on public spaces as people treating the outside world as an extension of our living room. I think that is a clever way to put it and also sad at the same time because I agree we should respect public spaces. As for the major disruptions that went viral that the article mentioned, I just hope those people get put on a black list of being able to enter other venues. I also feel bad for audience members who had a poor experience seeing a show they were interested in due to one wild card in the crowd.
This was a very interesting article to read. I was incredible frustrated at first because I had forgotten the Lauren Boebert scandal during Beetlejuice, as well as the “just stop oil” disruption that they pulled during “One Day More” in Les Miserables. I just can’t with those kinds of interruptions that just make me quite upset. I originally thought the article was going to be about how audiences have stopped following “traditional” theatre etiquette and how to address that, since I have read multiple news quiz articles on that subject. And this article did address that slightly byt that was not the main focus. Which is totally fine, that is just what I was expecting from the title. But now that I have read the article, the title makes perfect sense. The end of the article was quite interesting when it was giving potential strategies of how to deal with these not respectful audience members.
This was an interesting read as they didn’t immediately condemn the people who went onstage. In discussing the norms of theater and how they compare with the acts that have been publicised, they broadened a discussion about how we choose to behave and what is the best “stage” for a social or political platform which I think is interesting. Theater is a place to share stories, many of which have important messages - it’s an art that is extremely available to use as a platform to project ideas or concepts. However I think that should be pre-planned, and what the show is meant to be. Whether the performance is enacted outside or in a theater, people with messages and movements they want to promote should embrace theater as a place to do that, however shouldn’t step on others’ work to do that. In projecting their ideas onstage in Les Mis and the other productions mentioned, they took away from the incredible talent and work put in by artists trying to create, as well as the experience of those who went to theater.
I think that this article raised some interesting points, but I disagreed with the point at the end. The article mentions that a potential way to get around this disruptive and quite frankly rude audience is to encourage audience participation, or build it into your show in some capacity. well I do agree that those shows that do that are often a lot more fun, and engaging to newer audiences that may be unfamiliar with theater as a medium, I don't think this is a great solution all of the time. I believe that there are many instances where changing how theater is structured in order to encourage audience participation would end up hurting the places where participation wouldn't be allowed, or would end up encouraging the people whose “participation” goes too far. By no means am I a fan of super stringent theater etiquette, but I feel like a lot of these areas where people are doing things is just honestly common sense. It may be common sense that they never learned, but I don't think that's the responsibility of the theaters to cater towards.
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