"C U 2nite @ Wckd!" - Texting In Broadway Theatres- Page 4

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 5:32pm

I agree with Phyllis, but I seem to remember there was some amendment or something stopping theater from banning them. I can see banning cameras but technically cell phones aren't taking pictures of the productions. And yes, most of them now have cameras but some don't so I would think it would be tricky getting them banned. Just my random thoughts.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 5:38pm

I still think that if a theatre wanted to institue a no cell phone policy, there'd be nothing to stop them. I know they never will, and no one will ever do anything, but it seems to me that it's more apathy than anything else that keeps anything from really being done about this problem (Fosse76's hysteria notwithstanding).

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 6:11pm

The only problem with that is that they would have to search everyone if they are banned and then they would run into the same problems trying to locate them if someone sneaks one in and it goes off. Although, I agree they should ban them and then fine a person if their cell goes off or they are caught texting.


http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL0116654820070305

Updated On: 7/10/08 at 06:11 PM

[StockardFan]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 6:30pm

I've been to several concerts where cameras are banned and they search your purse.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 6:38pm

I don't like the idea of saying you can't even bring a phone into a theatre. I take my cellphone with me because when I'm in NYC I'm over an hour away from home and leaving my phone at home isn't much of an option. And, honestly, imagine the chaos if you had to check your cellphone. I wouldn't want a stranger to have access to my phone or having to wait in line to get it back at the end of the show.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 6:41pm

That's a good point as well, Eris. I don't know what the solution is.

[Weez]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 7:14pm

Well, they make spectators check their cellphones at golf tournaments, and I'm pretty sure you can fit more spectators around a golf course than you can in a theatre. I love the whiny way people make excuses that don't hold up at all when you throw logic at them. XD

[Eris0303]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 8:21pm

Umm...for starters I'm one of the people who shuts their phone off. And I'm sorry if I'm not comfortable with letting a stranger have my cellphone. A friend of mine had calls made on her cellphone when it was checked and several pictures taken on her digital camera. In fact, her camera battery was dead because they left it on so we couldn't take any pictures ourselves later.

[whatever2]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 8:29pm

apologies for potentially covering old ground here, but:

i believe this thread was started before the playbill article w/ an eerily similar title. regardless, this quote from said article struck me as singularly moronic:

> But text-messaging, it could be argued, is the more aggressively rude behavior of the two. Answering a ringing cell is a largely passive act. Taking out one's cell or Blackberry and initiating a text exchange requires action and intent.

first of all, off switches work equally well for texts and calls. secondly, both calling and texting require "action and intent."

hel-lo?!?!?! it's called self-control.

[LePetiteFromage]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 8:32pm

Updated On: 5/2/09 at 08:32 PM

[whatever2]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 8:34pm

thanks, but:

> regardless, this qoute struck me as singularly moronic ...

[LePetiteFromage]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 8:39pm

Updated On: 5/2/09 at 08:39 PM

[whatever2]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 8:41pm

not actually what happened on this end of the keyboard, LPF, but your point is fair 'nuf.

edited:

our little exchange distracted me.

my "regardless" actually matters ... the journalism is retarded. in what universe is texting less invasive than "celling"? the technology is identical.

Updated On: 7/10/08 at 08:41 PM

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 8:53pm

I could never be an usher. I'd be way to belligerent and confrontational with people like this.

[PitPro2004]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 8:53pm

I remember once I was sitting 20 rows back, center orchestra at the last 42nd St revival. When the curtain went up, about 12 people all lit their cell phones and starting taking shots, right in the first 3 rows closest to the stage!! It was so distracting, you couldn't help but notice it and so help me I have never seen so much theater gestapo go running in my life! They confiscated everything, god love them, and after 5 minutes I could actually watch the real show onstage and not the one in the house!

Set it to vibrate...that's the solution. Then get up and take your call out in the lobby like all the well mannered Europeans do, if it's that important.

[winston89]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 10:59pm

I think that it would be hard to flat out ban them because there is nothing that legally says you can't bring a cell phone into the theatre. The rule is you can't use them not that you can't bring it in. Now, we all know that if you bring a cell phone into a theatre that people are going to use it but the rule as is is not to use them not don't bring them in. Also, what insentive does a theatre have to give out fines. Can they legally do that as a priviate institution?

And, how would they enforce the fine. If your visiting from mid America and its your first time ever in NYC and they give you a fine for having a phone. How can the theatre make sure that the person is going to pay it?

And, every time I go to a concert at Jones Beach or MSG they don't really strictly check for cameras because they know that there are going to be way too many people to control and to check. And, I know of tons of bands who allow people to take photos and even record thier shows and trade them around with other fans. I know for rock concerts when it comes to things like taping the show and taking pictures it is usually up to the discression of the band in that situation.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 11:05pm

WINSTON:

Go to school, and come back when you learn how to write coherently.

[winston89]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 11:22pm

Foster f-- you

[BestOfBothWorlds]

Posted: 7/10/08 at 11:28pm

What is that? Fig you? Fop you? Fan you?

Yikes, you suck.

[winston89]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 12:14am

I was trying to insult without the chance of getting banned.

Here is one for you foster BLOW ME.

[Khashoggi]

Posted: 7/12/08 at 9:31pm

Okayfine - Its not a matter of having x-ray vision, or being able to see EVERY lap. Its about being awake and doing your job. Cell phones have lights, lights can be seen in a dark auditorium. There's nothing "utterly silly" about it, its just being professional, you idiot.
And its simple as an usher, you ask them once to turn off their phone. If they continue, you ask again and remind them that they have been asked once before. If they use it again, you call security and have them removed. End of story, no excuses.

[Tag]

Posted: 7/12/08 at 9:37pm

I work in theatre (stage management) and I for one could not give a **** what the audience does...as long as they aren't bothering my performers, they aren't bothering me.

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 7/13/08 at 1:03am

I work in theatre (stage management) and I for one could not give a **** what the audience does...as long as they aren't bothering my performers, they aren't bothering me.

And there you have it folks.

The reason people act like selfish asses.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/13/08 at 11:26am

Umm...for starters I'm one of the people who shuts their phone off. And I'm sorry if I'm not comfortable with letting a stranger have my cellphone. A friend of mine had calls made on her cellphone when it was checked and several pictures taken on her digital camera. In fact, her camera battery was dead because they left it on so we couldn't take any pictures ourselves later.

And it could be proven it happened DURING THE SHOW if someone was messing with your phone, so you could make a complaint. Or just take the battery out before you check, thereby solving the problem.

Winston, it doesn't matter that there's no LAW against cell phones in a theatre. If a theatre says you can't bring food or drink in, you can't bring food or drink in. Law has nothing to do with it. Businesses have every right to make any rules they want.

The reason why some of us are calling for these draconian measures is because, at their core, most people are douchey or think that a command to silence/turn off their phones doesn't apply to them, and the theatre management, as well theatre employees, don't seem to care.

And, how would they enforce the fine. If your visiting from mid America and its your first time ever in NYC and they give you a fine for having a phone.

People from Mid America aren't retarded as a general rule, Winston (and lots of us graduated high school with a quite a decent grasp of spelling and syntax). If a ban against phones is made clear, the responsibility rests on the patron, whether they are from New York or not.

And yeah, there are people who stealthily take photos or video, but don't dare tell me that fact that the theatre employees make it easy for them has nothing to do with it.

Perhaps if theatres adopted a zero tolerance policy and ejected ANYONE found using a phone in the house during the show it would send a message. All this "oh, well, what can we do" or the inexplicable hand-wringing about how people might die during a show if they can't use their cell to call 911 right away (and similar to what uncagreg said, I've been going to the theatre for over 25 years - I'm not so old, I just started young - and I've only ONCE been in a performance where there was an obvious medical emergency in the audience.

But what do I know? I'm just a rube from Mid America.