#1
Posted: 4/13/09 at 11:54pm
Tonight, I witnessed possibly the most inappropriate theater behavior I have seen in my life. It is up there with eating in the theater, unwrapping candy, and getting drunk and being rowdy - that behavior was public display of affection.
Disclaimer: Yes, it was a male gay couple that was engaging in this behavior, but I would be saying the exact same thing if it was a straight couple or a lesbian couple. I myself am gay and I am pro gay rights. I think that two men who are in a relationship should be able to hold hands on the streets without getting ridiculed. I am also not jealous of these two men since they are in a relationship and I am currently not in one. However, there should be a limit on the amount of public display of affection that people express - especially if it is distracting to audience members.
As many of you know, THE NORMAN CONQUESTS is done in the round. This means that the cast performs the play in the center, with audience members surrounding from every angle. Unfortunately (in this case), this also means that you can see the audience members sitting across from you.
A gay couple was sitting across from my two friends and I and during all of Act 2, they found it necessary to make a spectacle of themselves - to the point that it was incredibly distracting. The one on the left was wearing a striped shirt and the one on the right was wearing a purple shirt. Purple could not keep his hands off of stripes. He had his arm all the way around him and then stripes had his hand over his shoulder massaging purple's hand. They also frequently whispered in each others' ears, smiled at each other and fawned over each other, as if they were playing to the back of the Gershwin Theater. Also, purple kept on laying his head on stripes' shoulder and hugging him very tightly. Stripes was also laughing uncontrolably, applauding way above his head to stand out, so hard that he was practically falling out of his front row seat.
Yes, I did say front row seat. It is one thing if we were in a regular theater holding hands and cuddling. I have held hands at THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA with somoene I dated, and I even went a little further with a date at The Met one evening (no, nothing that bad). However, it was dark, the show wasn't in the round, and we were very discrete. These two guys were in the front row of the theater, and the spotlight was on them so everyone could see what they were doing.
I noticed it immediately, and I wasn't the only one, because during the first blackout in Act 2, both of my friends turned to me and whispered "are you seeing what is going on across the stage??" At one point, one of the actors was playing a scene and looking directly at them...I can't imagine that even he didn't notice what was going on. It was so distracting.
Was anyone else there tonight who noticed? Was anyone else distracted by this?
I want to reiterate that I am not bashing being openly gay about one's relationship...I'm just saying that there is a time and a place for this type of behavior - the front row of a theater in the round where everyone can see you is certainly not the place.
Disclaimer: Yes, it was a male gay couple that was engaging in this behavior, but I would be saying the exact same thing if it was a straight couple or a lesbian couple. I myself am gay and I am pro gay rights. I think that two men who are in a relationship should be able to hold hands on the streets without getting ridiculed. I am also not jealous of these two men since they are in a relationship and I am currently not in one. However, there should be a limit on the amount of public display of affection that people express - especially if it is distracting to audience members.
As many of you know, THE NORMAN CONQUESTS is done in the round. This means that the cast performs the play in the center, with audience members surrounding from every angle. Unfortunately (in this case), this also means that you can see the audience members sitting across from you.
A gay couple was sitting across from my two friends and I and during all of Act 2, they found it necessary to make a spectacle of themselves - to the point that it was incredibly distracting. The one on the left was wearing a striped shirt and the one on the right was wearing a purple shirt. Purple could not keep his hands off of stripes. He had his arm all the way around him and then stripes had his hand over his shoulder massaging purple's hand. They also frequently whispered in each others' ears, smiled at each other and fawned over each other, as if they were playing to the back of the Gershwin Theater. Also, purple kept on laying his head on stripes' shoulder and hugging him very tightly. Stripes was also laughing uncontrolably, applauding way above his head to stand out, so hard that he was practically falling out of his front row seat.
Yes, I did say front row seat. It is one thing if we were in a regular theater holding hands and cuddling. I have held hands at THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA with somoene I dated, and I even went a little further with a date at The Met one evening (no, nothing that bad). However, it was dark, the show wasn't in the round, and we were very discrete. These two guys were in the front row of the theater, and the spotlight was on them so everyone could see what they were doing.
I noticed it immediately, and I wasn't the only one, because during the first blackout in Act 2, both of my friends turned to me and whispered "are you seeing what is going on across the stage??" At one point, one of the actors was playing a scene and looking directly at them...I can't imagine that even he didn't notice what was going on. It was so distracting.
Was anyone else there tonight who noticed? Was anyone else distracted by this?
I want to reiterate that I am not bashing being openly gay about one's relationship...I'm just saying that there is a time and a place for this type of behavior - the front row of a theater in the round where everyone can see you is certainly not the place.
