The dog whistle of phones in theater article

I am speechless....

https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/the-dog-whistle-of-phones-in-theater-or-why-audience-behavior-is-always-the-wrong-conversation?fbclid=IwAR2pyL96sY45U8K5dNN0X-YykfJT0324VrHLcpmdQlfv57KK6AX6cVmw9Qw

fun fact, regardless of your skin color, either stay off your dang phones or stay home

My biggest issue with people using phones at the theatre is this:

– You take out your phone in the theatre to reply to a text
– You see a Facebook notification
– You tap the notification
– A video with volume starts playing, and now you've disrupted your fellow patrons and the actors onstage with both the brightness of your phone and the noise playing from it. (Alternate scenario, your phone rings and you have the audacity to answer the call during the performance.)

And also this:

– You take out your phone in the theatre to send a text
– You see something you like onstage
– You take a photo and the flash goes off, and now you've violated Equity rules, alarmed the actors, and disrupted people in the audience with the glow of your phone/brightness of the flash. And especially when a show is in previews or early in its run, it is NEVER the audience's prerogative to choose what content from the show is shared into the world via social media; producers and marketers work hard to monitor narratives, especially for pieces with sensitive subject matter.



The smaller the venue and the higher the incline of the seats (stadium seating/mezz), the more disruptive it is. I'm less concerned about young people doing this; they've all figured out how to subtly text in class and cheat on tests. It's the "older" generation that concerns me.

Updated On: 10/3/19 at 12:23 AM

God, I love Joshua so hard. He did not disrupt the performance for others, and since it's illegal to have your phone out in a theater in NYC, they never had to give that loser his phone back. HA.

Henry was very wrong to do what he did or a few good reasons. First off, I am well aware that there are some people who A think that a performer doing this will send a message, and B will automatically blame the cell phone user for the kind of action Henry did. And also some may say the ushers weren't doing their job. But, there are some very important things one has to realize from a working FOH standpoint.

First off, from the second he grabbed the person's phone, any damage or issue will be Henry's fault since the phone, no matter how he got it was not his to begin with and if there was damage, like I said it would be on the part of Henry not the guy using the phone. Hell, if someone has mobil tickets on their phone, when they come up to me I am not allowed to touch their phone for the same reason. Say I'm working a Shubert house, the onus of the issue would be on me rather than them since they handed me their phones.

Also, (and this mostly applies to Broadway) different production staff has their own rules about how to stop cell phone use. Yes, for the most part if an usher sees someone with a phone out, we go and stop them. But, that isn't aways the case. Take Beetlejuice for an example. We aren't allowed to run down the aisle to stop phone usage of any kind. The production doesn't want us running up and downtime aisle during the show. Also, they tell us when late seating can happen too. Seeing that that's what they want, then that's what we do. It doesn't fall on deaf ears but we can't do much about it. I just used Beetlejuice as an example that first came to mind not the same for all shows we still have follow the production's request. So, it would be wrong to say that ushers are't doing their job etc.

It may have been the dumbest article I have ever read. I would never take any of that theatre critic's reviews seriously. This article is just the tip of the iceberg for just how out of touch most theatre critics are.

Updated On: 10/3/19 at 12:47 PM

I'm sorry, but if keeping your phone away and generally not causing a ruckus so the people around you can appreciate the show is too much for "newbie audiences" to handle, then I don't want them in the audience around me. It's basic rules, they've certainly heard of them before, it's not f*ckin' brain surgery to attend the theatre.

Islander_fan said: "Take Beetlejuice for an example. We aren't allowed to run down the aisle to stop phone usage of any kind. The production doesn't want us running up and downtime aisle during the show. Also, they tell us when late seating can happen too.Seeing that that's what they want, then that's what we do. It doesn't fall on deaf ears but we can't do much about it. I just used Beetlejuice as an example that first came to mind not the same for all shows we still have follow the production's request. So, it would be wrong to say that ushers are't doing their job etc."

This explains why the idiots a few rows in front of me were taking photos at full brightness over their heads for the whole performance with no intervention.

What a surprise that the dumbest show on Broadway would have the dumbest FOH policies as well.

First off, from the second he grabbed the person's phone, any damage or issue will be Henry's fault since the phone, no matter how he got it was not his to begin with and if there was damage, like I said it would be on the part of Henry not the guy using the phone.


Completely untrue. He can destroy the phone or never give it back. Why? Because it's illegal to use your phone during a performance in a NYC theater house. Just like that moron who decided to wave a Trump 2020 sign after Frozen, doubtful this person ever got his phone back. Good on Joshua for reinforcing the law.

Updated On: 10/3/19 at 03:29 PM

everythingtaboo said: "I'm sorry, but if keeping your phone away and generally not causing a ruckus so the people around you can appreciate the show is too much for "newbie audiences" to handle, then I don't want them in the audience around me. It's basic rules, they've certainly heard of them before, it's not f*ckin' brain surgery to attend the theatre."

Absolutely.

eh, don't have much to say about the article itself because I don't really understand what its thesis is..... but have a cellphone story to share: I was at a performance of Oklahoma! where multiple phones went off from different spots in the venue. Since the lighting in that production is also on the audience, I was able to see that every notification sound came from an older audience member. One woman in the first row's phone went off TWICE - the second time occurred during an intense Jud scene and he yelled 'TURN THAT THING OFF' or something to that effect and then went on with there rest of his lines/blocking. We could all see she was visibly shaken but it was effective and I thought Vaill went about it in an appropriate manner. Although I do think younger people have a normalized phone/screen addiction, in a theatre setting I've found that they're less likely causing phone-induced distractions. Leave that to the older patrons who don't know how to adjust brightness, turn on airplane mode, or silence their ringers

LizzieCurry said: "The article itself wanders too much, but I get what she's saying (for part of it). The problem is that when you're bombarding newbies with rules, it can be overwhelming and make them not want to engage in theatre at all. We all have people in our lives who find Broadway to be a fancy thing — not necessarily because of prices — and maybe not for them because they won't fit in. (We've all been to unfamiliar environments where we're afraid we'll do something wrong or strange and be immediately made to feel unwelcome.) And if these newbies do show up, right up front they're being told what NOT to do first, of course it's not going to make the best impression. The problem is laying out the rules AND being welcoming."

but she didnt write that article. she made it implicitly about race, killing the conversation you rightly suggest should be had. not sure we can/should ignore her thesis-- wanting cell phones off during a play = a dog whistle to racists-- to her credit. she should be ashamed.

re: josh henry. good for him. humiliating people too selfish to make sure their phones are off, including physically snatching their toys away from them-- im all down for it. but the people here suggesting that if i break a theater rule, josh henry can steal/break/destroy my phone- the law dont work like that. i am SURE the phone was returned to the theatergoer after the performance.