Bad Audience Behavior — Page 2

You know, I'm against the death penalty, but I've actually seen people get a cell phone call in the middle of a show, answer the phone and actually have a conversation (one time the actors on stage actually all just stopped in their tracks and waited for this woman to finish before continuing on with the play). People like that deserve the chair.

But one of the most outrageous things I've ever witnessed was once during a play a New York Theatre Workshop (a small 200 seat theatre with perfect acoustics), a guy actually took out a Polaroid camera (think about how LOUD those things are) and took several pictures with FLASH of the show during Act I. He was spoken to, but not ejected, unfortunately, during intermission. I STILL can't get over that.

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rediculous

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I had the pleasure once of sitting next to a family of three sharing two seats- their third seat was about ten rows back, mom and two daughters had two tix and then bought a third off some guy on the street so that all 3 could all attend, but then sat with one daughter on mom's lap in the two seats they had together. And how do I know all this? Because they did nothing but *talk* during Act I! Some stuff about the play, pretty dresses and whatnot, and then other stuff that had nothing to do with anything- the pool at the hotel, the better seats they had in NY when they saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, etc.

I sicced an usher on them during intermission for breaking the one ass per seat rule, mom went to her own seat, but she was back by the second song of Act II. But at least after that they shut up for the rest of Act II.

Then at another show the bad audience person may have been me- my friend and I were the 3rd and 4th seats in from the aisle and two people further in were trying to 'make a run for it' and be the first ones out in that 5 seconds of darkness between after the show was over, but before the curtain call. My friend and I thought that was rude, so we refused to stand out of their way, and so they had to shimmy around our knees to get out. Petty and rude ourselves on our parts maybe, but who runs out between the end of the show and before the curtain call like that??

I like that Polaroid one, though- that one has to be the worst!

Sadly Glebb, it is true. This "person" (for lack of a better term) proceeded to pick at her feet (BOTH-one at a time)the entire pre show period. She was even bringing her leg up to get her foot closer to her face for inspection!!!

We were disgusted and throwing her looks (that she obviously didn't get) and were about to smack her when the house lights went down and she stopped.

bleeeechhh

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That is disgusting. So sorry that happened.
she should have opted for the zoo.

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Years ago when I worked for a theme park we did 5 shows a day in one of the theatres. Between performances the ushers would walk the rows and pick up after the previous audience. You would not believe how many dirty diapers were left on the floor!

MargoChanning,

Sorry to be nitpicky, but one of your sentences was screaming out for grammatical repair:

"Elizabeth Franz was delivering her final lines about she and Willy finally being "free and clear" literally laying on the stage (on top of Willy's grave)...."

"She" should be "her," and "laying" should be "lying." I won't bother to address the punctuation errors. The Internet is rife with faulty punctuation, but bad grammar makes one seem poorly turned out.

And I thought the cell phones were bad....ordering Pizza in the middle of a show?? Good lord....

I'm currently interning at a local theatre and one of our jobs is to clean up the stage area after the summer camp finishes during the day and when we do this on the day after a show, my God, some of the stuff we find on the floor..... It's honestly like a baseball game, food containers, wrappers, leftoevers etc as far as the eye can see. It was just plain disgusting. And don't get me started on the amount of gum and other sticky candies under the seats. Since when did theatre's become dumpsters for all leftover food? Sorry for the mini-rant, but I guess the impact of it didn't quite hit til I had to clean it all up. :-P

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Uh oh! lol

"Un-believable... I guess some people think going to the theatre is like sitting in their living room watching a dvd."

Oh boy do they ever! And its getting worse at both high priced professional shows and low priced community theatre offers! And they carry on loud conversations ("We have to talk loud so we can hear..") about unimportant matters, ("Wasn't she the girl we saw in that other show?" "No I think that was the other girl." "Which One?" etc etc ) or if not they always pick the moment a song starts to open their purse and unwrap a candy.

At one recent performance, every 5 min or so all thru Act One I could hear crinkle crinkle crinkle ... and spied an older couple in the row ahead of me as the culprits. At intermission, with a friendly smile I approached them and explained that all though the first act I was distracted by the noise of candy wrappers and could they please do all of us a favour and unwrap the candies they would need for the second act during the intermission. It did the trick, but I don't feel I should have to do that!

Worse was a friend of mine who stages 4 productions a year for a community group. At one recent performance a family came in and as the show began they started opening bags of potato chips. The house manager was on his toes and confiscated the snacks and asked the mother to meet him at intermission. As soon as the house lights went up he was down the aisle and proceeded to lecture her loudly and point to signs at all theatre doors and a notice in the program explaining that no food or drink is allowed in the theatre. (Making matters worse, the theatre had just installed all new seats and the owners were anxious to keep them in good shape!)

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This is something that gets on my last nerve every single time. I was born and bred to be in this business and of course I cannot fathom some of the things that people do when attending the theatre. I have no problem when a person makes one or two comments during a show as long as they are quiet and respectful of fellow patrons. I also have no problem with beverages being brought into a theatre, it actually supports my theory that all live theatre should be seen with the presence of alcohol in your system. I draw the line there.
People think that the going to a show in a theatre is like going to a movie in a theatre. Which nowadays has become more and more like sitting at home and watching a movie in your living room. I go to see a film and I go crazy by all the people talking to one another. Everyone getting up 15 times to get more popcorn. People talking on their phones and making noise with their food and drink. I simply cannot abide it. I want to sit there and focus on what is going on.

Sorry for the senseless ramble it drives me absolutely batty!

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I have given up completely on going to first run movie theaters. The frustration of cell phone noise (and lights!), the constant chewing and gnawing of food, the full conversations going on around me, and the fear of being punched, shot or stabbed because I had the audacity to ask someone to be quiet is not worth it.

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