RUDE PEOPLE AT THE THEATER!- Page 4

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:06pm

"They come here, they all come here. How do they find me?"

[Burning_Oasis]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:06pm

At Ace in San Diego, my class won a trip to go see a matinee of the show. Basically it was all students there. Right behind me was a group of inner-city kids who didn't know hoe to behave at the theater. Throughout the first act they were constintly talking. "Oh no, another song." Calling the characters offinsive names and basically giving rude commentary throught the show, and their teacer didnt do anything about it. At intermission, two ushers told them to keep quiet, one including the head usher. My teacher also told them to be quiet, as she walked away they shouted "Skinny White Bi*tch" at her. Throughout the second act the were quiet, but that didnt keep them from kicking our chars and throwing carrots and chewed up pieces of gum at us. I dont think I ever have an experince as bad as that one ever again.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:20pm

Slightly off-topic, but at Lewis Black's performance at City Center on Thursday, there was a loud obnoxious heckler (redundant, I know) in the rear mezzanine. I'm told that hecklers are commonplace at comedy stand up, but this guy wouldn't stop. They actually escorted him out of the theater. Hooray! Never seen that done before. It was early in the show and I guess they figured he was only going to get worse.

[TWSFan4Ever]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:23pm

I always hate when schools, even my school, go to the theatre. Over half of the students fool around. The teachers need to realize they're not appreciating it.

[folkyboy]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:25pm

well it's sort of like when you drag your boyfriend to the theatre or some such. you can WANT WANT WANT for them to enjoy it and appreciate it to the same extent that you do but all he does is just sit there and nod off during the titular moment in the show.

i agree. they should make kids write an essay to go to the theatre about why they want to go. maybe then they'll appreciate it.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:58pm

Put her leg on my head.

??? How is this even POSSIBLE? I am trying to picture this and can't for the life of me figure out how this could happen.

[lesmisforever]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 3:06pm

"She was guilty of a number of typical bad behavior habits like talking to her friend but more notably she spent a good part of the show grunting. Its difficult to explain because it wasnt during times where it was appropriate to laugh so I doubt she was snorting from laughing. I dont know if she had hiccups or what it could have been but it got so bad that people started giggling at her. I dont even think she realized it, she seemed blissfully unaware of her own odd behavior."

It sounds like a medical problem. People shouldn't laugh at that.

[worrell4077]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 3:37pm

This is a bit off topic, but I was just watching this great cartoon about the stereotypical rude people at the movies. It can be connected or used with theatre as well. Here's the link...http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail167.html

"I always hate when schools, even my school, go to the theatre. Over half of the students fool around. The teachers need to realize they're not appreciating it."

I agree. I'm in an acting class at my college and we went to see Dutchman with Dule Hill and a couple of people in another acting class at my college were talking during parts of the show loudly. In all honesty, I don't think tha they have any interest what so ever in theatre, even though they are taking the acting class. I think they are just there because a friend of their's is taking it or they are using it to count towards their credits.

[My Strongest Suit]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 3:39pm

my friend and i drove down to LA for a performance of the Les Mis tour just this past summer (we're from SF). we had pretty good seats in the mezz. center about the 5th or 6th row up. they were great seats until the two men sitting in front of us decided that for some reason they needed to use opera glasses (tiney binoculars - whatever) to watch some of the show. you don't need those, we weren't that far away!!! so they kept sharing the one pair and leaning in toward eachother and pointing out things for the other person to look at through the binoculars. it was horrible. luckily they moved seats at intermission because they weren't there for the second act. :)

[keen on kean]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 3:44pm

Lesmis - That was my thought too. But it raises an interesting question. I was recently in a restaurant and the person dining at the next table had a C-PAP machine to help her breathe. Obviously she had really bad asthma or emphysema. She has every right to eat in a restaurant, and yet the sound of the machine, and her labored breathing unfortunately completely ruined my appetite, and I left as soon as I could politely manage. And doesn't the same issue apply in theaters? People pay to see a performance, and any regular noise pattern in the audience is going to be distracting, even if unintentional. I don't think people were being mean as much as distracted and maybe uncomfortable - like nervous laughter. Don't know the answer to how to balance these interests.

[JustABroadwaybaby2]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 3:46pm

Sueleen- Maybe the person was a ballet dancer and really flexible!

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 3:57pm

Or it is possible that CoCo, being of diminutive stature was feeling a bit sleepy and laid her head on the aisle armrest and the person behind her, being a long legged person felt the need to stretch out a bit and not seeing our CoCo's head on the arm/head rest, extended her leg and thus inadvertently laid it on CoCo's noggin? Could be...

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 4:13pm

Oh, the mention of school groups reminds me of one event that happened on a school trip when I was I think in junior high. I had completely forgotten about this til just now. Our English class all went to see a local production of The Diary of Anne Frank. Apparently during the show, a group of obnoxious teen boys started throwing candy and pieces of chewed gum at other audience members and at the actors onstage!

I wouldn't be surprised if those guys are all in jail now. They were your typical mouth-breathing cretins.

[folkyboy]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 4:31pm

i actually read the person putting their leg on Corine's head as the seating being at a slant and Corine being lower than a tall person, thus them kneeing her head.

[Phantom2]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 5:19pm

I'm leaving!

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 2/25/07 at 7:32pm

fabala4077: I've had a moment like that, myself. We came in late during The Magic Flute because we couldn't find a parking spot (seriously, we drove around for an hour before we found one.) I felt sooo badly.

Anyway, I can sympathize with the inner city kids thing. We went to see a production of Othello done by UW Milwaukee, and there were a bunch of Milwaukee students there. They made comments throughout the entire production, and around Act V when Desdemona was dressed in a white nightgown to go to bed, they catcalled. You know, during the dramatic buildup to her murder! I was ready to kill them.

[sdsm2006]

Posted: 3/19/07 at 4:46am

I've experienced several instances of rude behavior most of which have been mentioned already, but this was a sad first -

I was at one of my favorite plays last night and during one of the garden scenes, there are several flowers placed on the front of the stage. Well, as this scene was going on, a woman in the front row actually reached out, put her hand on one of the flowers and laid it down on the stage (although the flowers aren't really big, I guess her view was "obstructed"). Now it was astounding enough that she had the nerve to touch part of the scenery, but then she did it again one minute later!! Of course the actors kept going completely unphased, though I was mortified. I think the woman and her party left during intermission or moved somewhere else, but I've never seen that happen before.

There were also quite a few people that got up in the middle of scenes as well as someone who came in late at the top of the second act, went to find his seat but when he couldn't figure out how to get back to it without stepping over people, just stood in the aisle for a couple minutes while an empty aisle seat was only a few rows away. And on top of all that a couple low volume cell phone rings during the second act... Ay me...