Texting: The New Heckling- Page 2

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

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

The point is that no one should be doing this to paying customers at a theatre. If 50 people left to go outside, would they physically check each person's ticket as they wandered back in for the next act? It is simply against theatre protocol.


They do check tickets upon re-entry at Shakespeare in the Park. Yeah, most of the audience are not paying customers, but they still physically check every person coming back in.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/6/11 at 7:14pm

I think one of the biggest changes in people is the idea of "I don't care what people think" being replaced by "I don't care about other people."

They're not the same thing. You don't have to care about the opinions of others, but when did you stop caring about people? There's no understanding going on at any level.

[Rudy2]

Posted: 7/6/11 at 9:48pm

Cape Twirl, come to think of it, I'm glad they check for Shakespeare In the Park, only because the tickets are so coveted and those in the audience generally have to work very hard / get up very early to get them. I for one would not consider getting up that early, but I respect those with the stamina who do so.

[My Name in Lights]

Posted: 7/6/11 at 10:03pm

I wholeheartedly agree that texting is extremely rude, especially at a live performance, but anywhere it interferes with someone else who has paid for a ticket to see a performance whether live or a movie would be rude. It amazes me that people think nothing of it and it's almost as though they are little children that need their phones taken away. Of course, that is impossible because I don't think anyone is going to stop a live performance or a movie for that matter in order to chastise someone who is texting. I had firsthand experience at a performance of WICKED. I was dead center in the orchestra and on my left was a woman who kept taking out her phone to text and she didn't think anything of it. At intermission, she asked if it was the end of the show. If she were that disinterested, she should have left and gone to the lobby and texted til her heart's content while her friend finished watching the performance. On my right were two ladies who decided they would bring dinner and drinks. The odor of food was awful during the show, as well as the sound of the ice cubes in the cup. I thought they were finished at intermission until during the second half they pulled out dessert. It was awful. No class. Obviously this shouldn't happen at all even if the seat was a dollar but to think that these people paid for seats and didn't care that everyone else wanted to see the show was really annoying. I wanted to scream, but I knew that wouldn't work during a live performance for the actors or the other people watching the performance. Part of the problem has to do with the Gershwin Theatre which had someone walking around at intermission selling snacks and drinks as though we were at the circus or a ballgame. Between eating and texting, Broadway is really going into the ___...and I thought the sound of candy wrappers was annoying, little did I know how much worse it was going to get. No class, no respect for anyone else.

[Rudy2]

Posted: 7/6/11 at 10:14pm

My Name, my goodness! That is terrible - the odor of the food, the clinking of the ice, all of it. I will never forget seeing a young man in the front row for "Desire Under the Elms," the most dark, dreary play I have ever seen, whip a Swiss Miss vanilla pudding cup out of his knapsack.

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/6/11 at 10:15pm

Regarding taking tickets with you at intermission...at "Priscilla..", "House of Blue Leaves", "Sister Act", "How to Succeed... (Especially) and "Book of Mormon" my ticket was check upon my re-entry after intermission. At "How to Succeed..." I forgot it and they didn't want to let me back in. I actually had to go to my seat, get it and show it to an usher.

Regarding ushers...BB, try texting where I work and your phone will be taken away until after the show.

[LegallyBroadway2]

Posted: 7/6/11 at 10:20pm

The theatre or the movies or any public performance, whether you hate the performance or love it with every fiber of your being, is that small time slot in which you can escape. My phone is completely off before my ticket scans and is turned on usually hours later when the rush of my experience is over. When a phone turns on during a show, I try so hard to ignore it, giving the person a chance. maybe it was important, and maybe this will only happen once. I try so hard to not to be distracted by a**holes who don't pull it out once, but multiple times.

It isn't our business who they are talking to, or what about. But we are all in the same dark room. We all are there for a reason, and respect for everyone, especially the performers, is something that needs to be an initiative by each individual.

[Rudy2]

Posted: 7/6/11 at 10:27pm

uncageg, my goodness, I guess times changed and I did not get the memo. That was once unheard of. Ask any lucky soul who second-acted "Company" on a routine basis back in the 70s just to see Elaine Stritch do "The Ladies Who Lunch." :)

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/6/11 at 10:29pm

If something is important enough to have to text or take a call during a performance, than put the phone on vibrate. When it goes off, get up and leave the theater and take the call. The whole reason for going to a show is TO SEE A SHOW. Not Text. Not talk. Not surf the web to check sports scores, etc., but to see the show you just paid anywhere from 27 to 300 bucks to see and to not annoy or distract people around you who also paid to see that show. And, as mentioned, not to distract the performers who are putting that show on. in some cases it can also distract members of the crew.

[viola13]

Posted: 7/6/11 at 10:46pm

I work in a theatre and I think the best thing I've seen is some guy pull out his laptop at the start of the show and start checking his email. He didn't understand why it was wrong when an usher went and asked him to either turn it off or step into the lobby. Or the guy who pulled out an iphone, put earphones in, and started watching a football game. yeeeaah.

[My Name in Lights]

Posted: 7/6/11 at 10:46pm

Although food should be out of the question during any performance, I'm guessing if the performance you were watching was dreary the person with the pudding cup was bored and too inconsiderate to remove himself from the theatre before pulling out the contraband. WICKED is not boring and I was looking forward to a particular actress' performance for months and the texting and banquet were both extremely irritating. I'm guessing at the very least the pudding cup didn't make a lot of noise or stink. Either way, it's all bad and the theatres aren't helping it any by allowing people to bring food with them. I don't care if people go out at intermission and eat in the lobby but why wait especially for the lights to go down before pulling out the food unless you already know its something you shouldn't do in the first place. Even if these people are too ignorant to realize they have bad manners and are inconsiderate of those around them, they do know that they're not suppose to do these things if they wait for the lights to go out and the performance to begin. Whatever happened to class?

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/6/11 at 11:05pm

It kind of amazes me that with all of the stories i read on hear about bad audience behavior, the majority of people don't say anything to the people next to or around them that are doing these things. I do. Always. Then I know I am not just complaining about it on an online forum, but I did something about it when it was happening.

[LegallyBroadway2]

Posted: 7/6/11 at 11:14pm

It all comes down to manners. I snack during a show, I'm just that kind of person. But I would never eat a meal during a show. Also, I don't crinkle at all. I bring only certain small foods that do not have an odor or noisy packaging, and I quietly enjoy the show. Like, take skittles and put them in my pocket. no one would ever know I was eating skittles! I like hubba bubba squeeze pops. omg those are my favorite.

[Rudy2]

Posted: 7/6/11 at 11:20pm

Legally, I agree with you. :) I have no problm with someone quietly eating a bag of M&Ms or Skittles. I think a pudding cup is a little much, though. I wasn't upset about it - it just disrupted a bit of the mood the heavy drama was setting.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/6/11 at 11:21pm

It does come down to manners. I've been known to stream a netflix movie on my iPhone before a show if I'm sitting there for a half hour with nothing to do and I don't see anything wrong with that. Because it's BEFORE the show.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/7/11 at 12:17am

Of course texting is fine at intermission or before the lights go dark. I also think it makes sense to be told to tke your ticket with you at intermission--although I hope the usher wasn't rude about it.

I admit I still find the fact that many (most?) US theatres allow you to bring your drinks into the house, let alone food too, very strange. That hasn'tcome to the Canadian theatres I've been to but I'm sure it's started to--drinks in the lobby make sense to me. Oh well.

My main complaint in the past has actually often been with ushers talking at the back of the theatre. I don't understand either how they can (noisily) come and go, when many of the same theatres still won't let audience members in until a designated spot in the show.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 7/7/11 at 10:01am

I love the article's explanation of how new information triggers a release of dopamine in the reward pathway of the brain. Makes a lot of sense. I know that if my phone's on and I get a text or voice mail, I feel this huge compulsion to check it. That's why I always try to turn my phone off.

I blame the eating trend on the fact that most live events encourage eating. Sports games, the movies, concerts, you name it. I think people just get used to it and feel entitled. As for me, I'm hypoglycemic and I still don't think I'd ever eat during a show. Once I had to use cough drops because I was sick and I felt extremely guilty about unwrapping them.

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/7/11 at 10:26am

What gets me is that some announcements ask you to open that piece of candy now and get rid of the noisy wrapper but they sell candy at the concession stands with wrappers that make noise every time to want to snack during the show.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 7/7/11 at 10:27am

Or the guy who pulled out an iphone, put earphones in, and started watching a football game. yeeeaah.

This goes way beyond the advent of smartphones. Men smuggling small radios or TVs to watch the game when their wives drag them to the theatre, ballet, etc. It goes back to the invention of the first handheld radio w/ a headphone jack. Heck, I'd rather him be doing that rather than sitting with cottonballs in his ears and being rude to his wife (as I witnessed once).

Once I had to use cough drops because I was sick and I felt extremely guilty about unwrapping them.

I bet you would have felt guiltier had you started coughing.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/7/11 at 10:43am

i think the human brain is being re-wired. Note the assortment of comments about checking messages at intermission and even the idea that one can't sit for 30 minutes without some sort of entertainment. A generation ago these things would have been impossible, indeed, unthinkable and NO ONE felt the need for them. It's jaw dropping how quickly we went from "A portable phone? What are you, a doctor?" to the need to be in contact with everyone. every. minute. of. every. day.

[Q]

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

Joe, that topic is the focus of the book “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," by Nicholas Carr. It was a pretty interesting read (NYT review linked below.)
Article link.

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/7/11 at 11:21am

Joe, you hit the nail right on the head.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/7/11 at 12:06pm

Fascinating. Indeed, every technology brings change to society. It is interesting to look at films, TV shows, even books from the pre-computer age. The pacing seems glacial now. I watched Bonnie & Clyde on cable recently- a movie I remember as shockingly breakneck in it's time- and it just waddled along now.

But apart from that we've GOT to be connected now. 25 years ago I had a home phone and a work phone. No answering machine. That's inconceivable now- how did we ever keep in touch? I'd go on vacation and come back to a few "While you were out" slips on my desk. Imagine being totally incommunicado for a week now. Could you do it?

[Eris0303]

Posted: 7/7/11 at 2:14pm

Imagine being totally incommunicado for a week now. Could you do it?

From work? Sure. I don't even call in to work when I'm on vacation. I'll check in with family members (if they aren't with me) infrequently. For the most part I stay out of whatever is going on at home.

[Patash]

Posted: 7/7/11 at 2:14pm

"The point is that no one should be doing this to paying customers at a theatre."

What? They shouldn't be checking paying customers to make sure they have a ticket? You're kidding, right?

"If 50 people left to go outside, would they physically check each person's ticket as they wandered back in for the next act?"

No, not necessarily, but the whole idea could simply be random checks. I can't imagine anyone stupid enough to leave a paid event without a ticket to prove he has one.

"It is simply against theatre protocol."

Checking tickets is against theatre protocol? Not in most theatres -- checking them is definitely part of their protocol.

"It's not as though there were people wandering the streets just dying to second-act "The Importance of Being Earnest," although it was a good production...and even if there were, it's just not done."

Wanna bet? There have even been posts on here from people who try to sneak in to shows to see the second act (and often successfully). There is even a commonly used term for this -- "the second act discount". Actor Bill Irwin once wrote a whole thing about how he used to see dozens of shows that way -- or rather their second act only.

The bottom line? Why would ANYONE complain that they have to have a ticket to see a show? The WHOLE show, not just the first half? I'm speechless that anyone would blame the theatre for requiring people to show a ticket. Try it at a sporting event by the way!!!