BackStage Utah

Perhaps someone has posted about this issue before, but I haven't seen it. During the past two years or so, the following has occurred while I have been acting in a play or attending one:

While attending a show at a local prominent theatre-in-the-round, a woman on the front row was knitting. Now, with theatre in the round, it is inevitable that light will splash on the audience. Come to think of it, she probably bought her front row ticket for that very reason�to have light to see what she was doing. She probably didn�t realize that the audience members could see each other (especially since she didn�t look up much from her knitting. I don�t know how much of the show she actually saw). Anyway, it was VERY distracting for me as an audience member sitting across the way. She moved so much she upstaged the actors. There were times she seemed annoyed that the actors were so close to her�especially when a swordfight was going on right in front of her. Sometimes, her yarn would get tangled and she�d straighten it out using her arm�raising it high above her head. It almost looked like she was trying to participate in the swordfight onstage. I tried to find her to say something during intermission, but couldn�t. She was late getting back to her seat. If I had been acting, I would have stayed in character and swiped the stuff out of her hand.

Same show: Following the climax of the play and as the plot is wrapping up, 20 to 30 people get up and leave like it�s the end of a sporting event, their team is losing, and they want to beat the traffic.

In a small black box theatre�during my speech in the opening scene of a show, a guy in the second row pulls out a bottle of whiskey and paper cups and proceeds to loudly pour (�glug, glug, glug�) and pass drinks down the row to his friends!

I attended a show at a small theatre (150 seats) and saw a local film industry talent agent there. She came to see one of her actors who was in the play. Apparently, she forgot she was a professional adult at a live performance (mistook herself for a dumb teen in a movie theatre) and decided it would be a good idea to make out in the back row with her date. People running the lights talked for quite a while afterward about how distracting it was.

Same show: A drunk homeless man was in the back snoring and yelling in his sleep. The producer woke him up and escorted him to the lobby where she babysat him to ensure he didn�t wander back into the performance space. His mother had bought him a ticket so he would have a warm place to go. He managed to wander back in later�and began snoring loudly right during the climax of the play.

After frantically hurrying offstage into the dressing room, and while stripping down to nearly nothing for my quick change, the pungent stink of poop nearly knocked me over. I looked up in my naked state, startled to see a strange woman I had never met with a baby in her arms. She informed me that she was going to use my dressing room to change the baby and that it was okay because her mother was on the theatre board. I was late for my entrance onstage. The woman stunk up the dressing room, returned to her seat, and the baby continued to fuss throughout the show.

Not one, not two, but THREE cell phones went off during the first scene of the show�immediately following the pre-show announcement asking people to turn them off! One of them ANSWERED THE PHONE!!! �Both of us onstage were playing distraught characters, but we didn�t need the audience to help create that!! Both of us were quite angry backstage. I know I shouldn�t have let it affect the rest of the performance�but it did.

While doing a show in a large proscenium theatre, I consistently saw small lights coming from the audience. People had their phones on silent but were texting during the show. I�m sure they figured that it was dark, that they weren�t bothering other audience members, and that no one would notice if they were discreet. Well, it bothered me and the other actors. It was annoying, rude, and distracting�especially during scene changes when we were trying to see our way offstage in dim lighting. Plus�cell phones left on often mess with sound equipment.

Several audience members were talking in full voice during a play I attended. We kept looking over at the talkers, frustrated and annoyed with them. After the show, the people who had been talking came over and scolded us by saying that we should have handled ourselves differently and that giving dirty looks wasn�t an appropriate way of dealing with our frustration. If they were bothering us, we should have TALKED with them about it! WHAT??? During the show??? NO!!!! We didn�t want to add to the problem! We wanted it to go away!! They thought WE were rude!

Is it just me . . . or is there a HUGE problem with audience etiquette around here? This has been bothering me for quite a while now. Has anyone else had weird experiences with audience members? How do we better educate people about etiquette at the theatre? Pre-show announcements seem to be getting longer and longer. Do they really need to say �no knitting, no pouring drinks, etc.�? Am I expecting too much? Should we just expect ignorant people to get up and leave in the middle? Should they do what they want because they paid for it? Should we say, �It�s okay. They don�t know any better.�--or is it important to educate people? I think an educated audience generally gets more out of a play than an uneducated one. Thoughts?

I've witnessed some of them, and I'd like to contribute a couple more stories.

I was in a Utah parody theatre and FRONT ROW (which is basically one foot away from the stage) was a girl whose cell went off, and she answered it!  The actors poked fun at her, she acted all embarrassed, there were laughs all around.  A little bit later her phone went off again, and she answered it again.  That time an actor took her phone from her ear, whereupon he took it backstage and we made a video on it detailing how incredibly rude she was.

Then I was in an Idaho parody theatre when, once again, a front row teenage girl was texting the entire time.  Her parents were right next to her, who completely didn't care that their child was being ridiculously rude.  The actors made many pointed comments about her, her texting, and her rudeness, but apparently she was too distracted to hear for she continued on.  I guess the parents finally said something as after intermission she moved.... a whopping two feet back to the second row, where she continued texting.  I am not exagerating when I say she never once stopped texting through the entire show.  And her parents did nothing.  I'm just as mad at the parents as I am at the girl. 

Honestly, I think the bad theater etiquette epidemic has three responsible parties: movies (not that they're bad, I just think people take more liberties when the people they're watching are pre-recorded, then don't know what to do when they're confronted with live), cell phones, and bad parenting.

Bruce Wayne wrote on May 30^th, 2009 at 1:49am:


No, indeed, you are not. I am pretty careful about my standing ovations.

gcarp wrote on May 30^th, 2009 at 2:42pm:

I've always called them Leaving Ovations...everyone's just standing up while they clap so they can head out to the parking lot.  Especially if they like getting out the door before the receiving line is set up in the lobby.

It's not just Utah audiences that can be rude, or just oblivious to others around them. I've done theater in Virginia, southern California and northern California. There are always audience members that bug not only the actors but other theater goers.
  I've also had the experience of someone answering their phone (after the pre-show announcement). A few other stories: I worked in a small theater (90 seats) with the front row about a foot from the stage. Several times we had people prop their feet on the stage during the performance! During intermission, some would sit on the edge of the stage while twice we had people actually get up and sit on the set's furniture. When the stage manager requested they leave the stage they acted like she was the rude one.
  It also frustrates me when someone arrives late (such as once mid way through the 1st act) and not only expects to be seated but talks the whole way to their seat.
  I'm sure most theater folks have stories to share. Unfortunately, it's like "preaching to the choir". Maybe it would be a good idea for the Tribune to do an article on audience etiquette one Sunday in the theater section. It might just open a few people's eyes (the oblivious one's anyway... the rude are rude regardless).
   Regarding standing ovations, again this isn't unique to Utah. I have seen it in many theaters. I've always been stingy with my SO's, maybe because they seem to have become so common.