Actors - Are Apple Watches irritating?

[MarkBearSF]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 12:52am

Question for the actors out there (and other audience members, for that matter) - Do you see - and are you bothered by - audience members glancing on small watch devices like Apple Watches?
I'm talking about hands on lap with a brief tap to check the time. And for those unfamiliar with the device, it has a MUCH lower light output than a smartphone. Perhaps I've spent too much time analyzing the structure of musicals, but I do enjoy tracking the action onstage with the time.

 

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 1:04am

Fellow audience members who neglect to turn off their Apple watch during the show drive me up the frigging wall. It might be a very low light, but it’s still a light. These days, it’s quite often that I reach over to tap a person to get them to notice it. Just turn the damn thing off! Don’t they have a setting specially for when you’re in the theatre, too?

[MarkBearSF]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 1:33am

BroadwayConcierge said: "Fellow audience members who neglect to turn off their Applewatch during the show drive me up the frigging wall. It might be a very low light, but it’s still a light. These days, it’s quite often that I reachover to tap a person to get them to notice it.Just turn the damn thing off! Don’t they have asetting specially for when you’re in the theatre, too?"

Thank you. May I inquire further - when this has bothered you, was the audience member next to you, in front of you or further away?

 

[trpguyy]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 2:09am

Apple Watch displays should be off while at the theatre. Also, at SoulCycle

[nightnic001]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 2:27am

You can definitely see them. It doesn't bother me, per say, but it is noticeable at times.

[MarkBearSF]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 2:27am

These aren't the responses I hoped to see, but thank you. I'll turn it off.

[gleek4114]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 3:24am

It does bother me. A light is a light and a screen is a screen. 

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 3:26am

The watch now comes with theatre mode that turns the screen off, the Samsung watch is way worse 

[rjm516]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 5:10am

No  matter how quick the glance is, it's still a light and no matter where you are sitting, SOMEONE can see it. And especially the actors, looking out on a sea of black, can see when little pops of light come up.

[rcwr]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 6:25am

It bothers me very much. It nabs my focus from the stage even if the person is in the row in front of me or not next to me. Please, please keep it off. I have sympathy for you enjoying tracking the time in terms of the show's structure -- I do that sometimes with tv shows -- but in the theater it's not fair because you're interrupting other people's experience.

[rcwr]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 6:29am

Depending how important the time-tracking is to you, you could try a cheap, old-fashioned watch -- not one with a light, but one with a face that's big enough and numbers that are bold/clear/offset enough that you might be able to read it in the darkened house.

[frannygreenglass]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 6:37am

This is a great question!  Personally, I have never noticed apple watches.  Honestly, I don't see much in the audience.  Many times people have thought that I had been looking right at them during a show, but the vast majority of the time I can only see darkness beyond the first row or two (depending on the theatre/lighting.)

Perhaps it's distracting to other audience members, but I can't imagine an actor could actually see that tiny light from stage.  (I don't have great eyesight--so maybe that is a factor too.)

[uncageg]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 7:32am

They are also very annoying for ushers. I think a lot are used to them by now but they get mistaken for cell phone screen lights. I have seen ushers go down to tell a patron to turn their phone off and stop short when they realize it is an apple watch. As a patron I find them distracting especially when sitting in a mezz or balcony seat and watching them light up constantly in the front orchestra. Yeah, just turn them off or put them in theatre mode.

franny, actors can see more than you think they can from the stage!

Updated On: 10/17/17 at 07:32 AM

[BuddyStarr]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 7:34am

I wear an Apple Watch and there is a theatre mode where the face doesn't come on when you move your wrist. You have to tap it to see the time. I have seen other people's watches going on while they're moving their arm, or more distracting, putting their arm over the shoulder of the person they're with so the watch is directly in front of you and going on and off. 

I do not turn my watch off at the doing cardio. It tracks your workouts especially when you're tracking your pulse on the treadmill or in a biking class. Now bringing an iPad and putting that on you handle bars during a class is another thing...(yes, I've seen that done before during an hour class in the front row)

[HogansHero]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 8:50am

Notice how a thread that was supposed to be about the perspective of actors (presumably while acting) was hijacked by those only interested in themselves (in the audience).

I would think that actors are largely unaffected by and unaware of silent things in the audience. I'm sure watch screens are less noticeable than the reflection off eyeglasses. Should we ask the audience to take theirs off?

[Andy51]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 8:59am

HogansHero said: "Notice how a thread that was supposed to be about the perspective of actors (presumably while acting) was hijacked by those only interested in themselves (in the audience).

I would think that actors are largely unaffected by and unaware of silent things in the audience. I'm sure watch screens are less noticeable than the reflection off eyeglasses. Should we ask the audience to take theirs off?"

Looks like you only read the subject heading, since the OP clearly included the perspective of audience members in the question:  "Question for the actors out there (and other audience members, for that matter)"

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 9:25am

And yes, actors CAN and DO see and hear more that you would ever think.  They see every little light from the stage and every person getting up during the show: in the orchestra, mezzanine and balcony.  Remember, there are still some lights on in the theatre house so these people cut into the light so it catches their sight line from the stage.  Even the whispers and any form of commotion can be heard from the stage.  Actors have mentioned all of this in the past.  

[BuddyStarr]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 9:38am

As an actor, I do not see watch faces "going off" but do see the phones light up and those pesky red lights of a camera that turn on when recording (which is probably the worst from the stage).  however, I am also bothered if the audience is distracted by anything not on the stage.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 9:46am

I've yet to encounter this problem on stage.  I'm generally more annoyed by the sounds coming from the audience than anything visual.  Hearing candy being unwrapped...or talking...or (the worst) a phone going off...takes me out of it.  I've seen the red camera lights (oy, but tell stage management and it gets taken care of).  I've clocked folks walking out of shows while I'm on stage, which pulls me for a second, but somehow it's a goddamned Werthers being unwrapped that does me in.   

[dramamama611]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 10:05am

Honestly, I think this is something that you need to choose your battles over.  It's not a huge deal, let's not make it one.

[Emmaloucbway]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 11:02am

I'm not an actor, but I did notice Apple Watches when I sat onstage at Great Comet one time. It wasn't super distracting, but I could see them, especially during applause breaks. I guess that's the same view as an actor's in that case. 

[CT2NYC]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 11:10am

I'm surprised this is even a question. Any unncessary and preventable distraction in the theatre is unacceptable. Whether or not it annoys one person and not another is beside the point. 

[John Adams]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 11:18am

BrodyFosse123 said: "And yes, actors CAN and DO see and hear more that you would ever think. They see every little light from the stage and every person getting up during the show: in the orchestra, mezzanine and balcony. Remember, there are still some lights on in the theatre house so these people cut into the light so it catches their sight line from the stage. Even the whispers and any form of commotion can be heard from the stage. Actors have mentioned all of this in the past."

...but are any of these things so distracting that they break an actor's focus/concentration? Although an actor might notice these things peripherally, or even subliminally, they're all pretty innocuous. I doubt actors give them the time of day (see what I did there?)

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 11:21am

But...is it THAT much to ask to simply go to 'theater mode'?  Is it really THAT much of an imposition????  As I've said, it doesn't bother me from the stage...it might bother me from the audience.  Were I to have an Apple watch (heaven forfend...the last thing I want is to replace my wonderful watches that I love so much with another way for people to distract me), I would absolutely put it on theater mode any time I was witnessing live (or filmed) entertainment.  It's just...not that hard.  

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/17/17 at 3:33pm

I don't think we should even get to the point of optioning "theatre mode".  Everyone has cell phones, already.  They all have clocks on them.  Just don't wear a light-up watch when you go to the theatre, Apple or Samsung or whatever.  I'm a technology geek, so I get why people have them (I would like to have one, myself), but I'm smart enough to know not to wear one in a theatre.  Or at least to keep it covered with a sleeve (though it's not a reliable option).  Take it off and put it in your pocket!  Put it back on when you leave the show!  GAWD!  I often forget how stupid people can be, but it slaps me in the face every time I sit in an audience for a Broadway show or Broadway tour.