Before seeing SA June 20th, for my 8th time, 5th time on stage, I was planning to write my second review for you all of Kyle Riabko and Alexandra Socha and company. I was totally excited to have onstage seats with my BFF at BB12-14 surrounded entirely by the cast. Unfortunately, we only got to see half of th show. Why, you ask? To my total shock, we were told by house managment that we could not return to our stage seats after intermission and we escorted to our lockers to remove our stuff. Why, you ask? We have no clue.
We made sure we got to the theater very early, which we did. We bought a poster and put it in our lockers and went on stage. We were very excited to be able to sit next to our favorite actors. Once Blake Bashoff and Blake Daniel sat near us, we were VERY happy. We followed all the rules. We only laughed when the audience was laughing. We didn't have our legs hanging out to get in the way of the actors. We had ZERO interaction with the actors. I read that some people whisper, "good job" or something like that, but we didn't even do anything like that. Then we left the stage for intermission. We went on line for the bathroom, talking about switching seats for the second half of the show.
As we walked to the stage, after intermission, the house manager asked me and my BFF to come with her. She told us that the company asked we not return to the stage seating because of "commentary, giggling, and talking." We were SHOCKED! Actually, that can't even describe what we felt at that moment. We didn't know what to do. The house manager then told us to get our things out of the lockers and she would try to seat us in the back of the mezzanine for the second half. Me and my friend honestly had no idea what we had done to deserve this. We really do believe that we were being respectful on-stage, we were not talking or distracting the cast, and were laughing only where appropriate. It actually makes me wonder whether they identified the people sitting in the correct on-stage seat numbers that they wanted to remove. Maybe this was all a big mistake. Although, I have to say that I didn't see anyone else on-stage acting inappropriately either.
If any of you were there last night, please tell me if you saw us or anyone else on-stage causing a disruption. I am truly shocked by all of this. And, I have to say that it all left a really, really bad taste in my mouth. I hate to admit it, but this episode brought me to tears. And, it really ruined for me the joy that I have had over so much time with this show and with this cast.
Actually, after the intermission, we left the show in shock. We ended up standing outside the theater reflecting about what we might have of done. We asked the house manager, Bess Eckstein to step outside to discuss with us what had happened, which she did (and we appreciate that she gave us her time). She said she honestly did not see anything. She said that she received a call of complaint from the stage managers requesting that we be removed. And she had no choice, because if we were doing something wrong during the second half of the show, there would be no way of stopping it. We just keep wondering whether she or they identified the wrong seats. She acknowledged that we seemed very respectful and that it very well may have been a MISUNDERSTANDING--a misunderstanding that I have to say really ruined my Spring Awakening experience. And left me feeling shocked, humiliated, embarrassed and zapped of all my joy.
Please, if you or anyone you know was at the show and has any thoughts about what may have happened, I would really appreciate hearing about it. Doesn't make much sense to me to wait by the SD. Not sure the cast would have further comments.
Hopefully, this won't happen to any of you. You should be able to enjoy the show, especially in a much coveted on stage seat, without fear that you might be removed.
Updated On: 6/23/08 at 11:42 AM
