Mentally Impaired Audience Members — Page 2

"It isn't discriminating to tell a person who is making noise to leave"

Um, I didn't say that. I said it is discriminatory to refuse to sell them tickets. As for your statement, we are not talking about a patron who happens to be making noise. You CAN ask them to leave. We happen to be talking about a mentally ill patron who cannot help it.

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in this case though I am pretty sure it would be discriminatory to ask the patron to leave, seeing as how they cannot help it.

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Its a very tough call and working FOH i understand what a difficult decision it is for the team to make, its not an easy one but like i say we dont ask them to leave we just try to accommodate everyone the best we can

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Lake ~ No, their behaviors are not "set". Unless they live in a theatre and/or are exposed to theatrical events a lot, that is likely a totally new situation. People with developmental delays often have difficulty generalizing ~ taking their behavior from one setting and applying it to another. Skills have to be taught in many different settings for generalization to have a chance at taking place. Unless the person has been to a theatre many times, the odds that they will exhibit their "typical" behaviors are very slim. Trust me ~ I teach special education and even the most well-behaved child can react in any possible way when they're in a non-typical situation.

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Thank you, song and dance man.

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jordangirl, I have always seen my clients behavior as fairly consistent. And I was referring to loud noises in the theatre, not the all around experience of going to a musical/play.

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And yes, they will not always act the same way, but more often than not they will be very similar.

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I do understand where you come from, lake. Especially if you work with these people, you obviously have much more knowledge and understanding of their behaviour.

Sadly, the theater is a place where audience members are expected to behave in a certain manner throughout a show, and not designed with understanding for individuals with specific needs. Maybe if our society progresses one day we'll have specific seating that is sound proof for them. Right now, I'm afraid this is the sad rfeality.

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"then why did you feel it was necessary to say "wow" afterwards?"

That was my reaction to "these people". I'm sure you've heard that type of reaction before.

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"Sadly, the theater is a place where audience members are expected to behave in a certain manner throughout a show, and not designed with understanding for individuals with specific needs. Maybe if our society progresses one day we'll have specific seating that is sound proof for them. Right now, I'm afraid this is the sad rfeality."

But I'm not sure what you're getting at. Are you suggesting that there be a separate area, or room for the mentally ill to sit? I think the idea is not to segregate.

I think what this comes down to is tolerance. If you're lucky enough not to be afflicted with a dibilitating condition, be happy that you are and if someone less fortunate than you is sitting near you and you can't deal with the inconvenience (whatever the price you paid for your ticket), then go to the house staff and see what can be done. That's what I think.

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Yeah, this is a very tough situation. I've witnessed it firsthand too, and it creates awkwardness for everyone.

It was at Idina Menzel's Martha's Vineyard show a couple summers ago. It was a concert situation, and there was an adult man with some sort of mental impairment (? not sure of the PC term). He and his friend were seated at the very front, against the stage, but off to the side.

They carried on a VERY loud conversation through the whole show. Blurting out inappropriate things. "Yeah, Jonathan Larson. He died of AIDS!" and he'd repeat it over and over, almost like he had autism.

Obviously he was somewhat of a fan, so he had every right to be there. But it was also very distracting to the audience.

Idina herself had to address the situation several times, asking them to be quiet. But I don't believe, due to the lighting, and darkness of the crowd that she could really tell what the situation was, that this man actually had a condition, and was not just a rude fan.

You could tell it was bothering her, and she couldn't really put all her focus on the show. It was just completely 100% awkward.

But there wasn't really a "right" thing to do. Relocating the men probably would've created even MORE of a disturbance. And he has every right to attend whatever show he would like to.

So basically, yeah, it was just awkward.

"then why did you feel it was necessary to say "wow" afterwards?"

That was my reaction to "these people". I'm sure you've heard that type of reaction before.

I really don't think "these people" is insulting: you could be talking about performers in, say, The Lion King and refer to them as "these people". You could be talking about me and my family members and what we're having for dinner and say, "These people tend to have chicken". I also especially don't think lakezurich meant that in any negative sense. Just my 2 cents.

Updated On: 2/6/08 at 08:10 PM

I definitely agree I previously was just taking "loud noises" as an example.

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