The Green Room - Theatre Audience Etiquette . . . What's the deal?

Reply #10 - Jun 3^rd, 2009 at 8:43am

The Heathenist Offline
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best thing ever: A group of 5 pro actors from london came to perform Hamlet up at USU. 4 men 1 women playing all the parts in a condensed but still very heavy duty production. They were phenom! Seriously, one of the most moving performances i have ever seen...they wore blacks and when changing character, they would just add a small piece to their costume to represent someone different. One guy played Rosencrantz AND Guildenstern both. AMAZING. Seriously flawless. Anyway...the night i went. A girl on the front row...text book open, i pod on, earphones in, and TOTALLY asleep. The guy playing hamlet was livid. He gets into one of his soliloquies, walks right over to the area this girl is sitting, and he screams at her "FRAILTY, THY NAME IS WOMAN!"

it was awesome.

the girl was then escorted out by an usher at the request of the 5 actors.

Love if you can and be loved.&&&&You see what you look for, ya know?&&&&I like smiling, smiling's my favorite!

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Reply #11 - Jun 3^rd, 2009 at 11:13am

BlueRoses Offline
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. . . a few more thoughts:

Quote:

Can I also add incessant and automatic standing ovations to the list of "Etiquette"? �It seems here in Utah people will stand for just about anything. �I feel like standing ovations should be reserved for stand out performances and mind-blowing, character-changing, life-revolutionizing performances. �Am I alone in this conjecture?

I completely agree. It means much more to me as an actor if people really mean it when they stand--rather than doing it out of habit.

Quote:

The guy playing hamlet was livid. He gets into one of his soliloquies, walks right over to the area this girl is sitting, and he screams at her "FRAILTY, THY NAME IS WOMAN!"

I hope this guy got a standing ovation just for this! He deserved it!

Quote:

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).

I had thought about writing a letter to the editor about this issue, but it seems that ignorance is the problem. Most often, people who really need to hear a message are the ones who are absent, not paying attention, or dismissing the issue as someone else's problem. Are ignorant people going to read a letter to the editor? Probably not. It may be more helpful if a theatre critic wrote an article on this topic. I'm not sure.

Quote:

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.

Maybe I'm opening a completely new can of worms here. Perhaps this should be a new thread--but how do you all feel about the receiving line thing? I find it to be a very amateurish and self-serving practice. Perhaps a receiving line is appropriate for children's theatre, but not otherwise. I have several reasons why I think this:

It negates the magic of the fourth wall and the line between actor and character. Most actors who greet audience members are in costume but not in character when they do so. I want people to remember what they experienced when my character was onstage: the funny, touching, moving things they saw and felt--not that they tripped over my long skirt or saw me sneezing on the way out of the theatre. Likewise, I don't really want to see Hamlet kissing his girlfriend out in the lobby. It ruins the magic of what I've just experienced.

Additionally, the whole point of the show is to tell a compelling story and to create characters the audience can connect with. This becomes a problem, however, when a an audience member mistakes his/her connection with the character for a connection with the actor. In short, I don't want strangers coming up and hugging me or inappropriately bearing their souls. It makes me uncomfortable.

A receiving line can make audience members feel like they are being forced to give compliments as a price to get out the door. When I go to a show that I enjoy, I applaud. If the show is stellar, I give a standing ovation. If the show is really stellar, I go again or tell my friends to go. That is my thank you. Do not beg me for more thank yous.

As an actor, there have been several times audience members I don't even know have waited until I've changed out of my costume to talk to me outside the dressing room. That means SOOOO much more to me than a stupid and insincere "Good Job" from a passing audience member anxious to get out of the only exit.

Just my two cents.

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Reply #12 - Jun 3^rd, 2009 at 11:46am

spiker Offline
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BlueRoses wrote on Jun 3^rd, 2009 at 11:13am:

Quote:

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).

I had thought about writing a letter to the editor about this issue, but it seems that ignorance is the problem. Most often, people who really need to hear a message are the ones who are absent, not paying attention, or dismissing the issue as someone else's problem. Are ignorant people going to read a letter to the editor? Probably not. It may be more helpful if a theatre critic wrote an article on this topic. I'm not sure.

...

Maybe I'm opening a completely new can of worms here. Perhaps this should be a new thread--but how do you all feel about the receiving line thing? I find it to be a very amateurish and self-serving practice. Perhaps a receiving line is appropriate for children's theatre, but not otherwise. I have several reasons why I think this:

It negates the magic of the fourth wall and the line between actor and character. Most actors who greet audience members are in costume but not in character when they do so. I want people to remember what they experienced when my character was onstage: the funny, touching, moving things they saw and felt--not that they tripped over my long skirt or saw me sneezing on the way out of the theatre. Likewise, I don't really want to see Hamlet kissing his girlfriend out in the lobby. It ruins the magic of what I've just experienced.

Additionally, the whole point of the show is to tell a compelling story and to create characters the audience can connect with. This becomes a problem, however, when a an audience member mistakes his/her connection with the character for a connection with the actor. In short, I don't want strangers coming up and hugging me or inappropriately bearing their souls. It makes me uncomfortable.

A receiving line can make audience members feel like they are being forced to give compliments as a price to get out the door. When I go to a show that I enjoy, I applaud. If the show is stellar, I give a standing ovation. If the show is really stellar, I go again or tell my friends to go. That is my thank you. Do not beg me for more thank yous.

As an actor, there have been several times audience members I don't even know have waited until I've changed out of my costume to talk to me outside the dressing room. That means SOOOO much more to me than a stupid and insincere "Good Job" from a passing audience member anxious to get out of the only exit.

Just my two cents.

Erica Hansen wrote a piece on some of this a while back: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700234384,00.html. I also have a vague memory of her writing something about a decline in audience dress standards. I think we may have even discussed it here. It may have been one of her blogs, but I can't seem to find it now.

Anyway...I completely agree with all your thoughts on trolling lines (as in, trolling for compliments). I dislike them intensely. They do them routinely at both Hale theatres. I know that their audiences have come to expect them and are disappointed when they want to compliment an actor who is not there (for whatever reason). So, when I work at HCTO I participate. At least I have lot of good stories about the CRAZY things people have said to me. Truly. Crazy.

"...there are more people alive now than have died in all of human history. �In other words, if everyone wanted to play Hamlet at once, they couldn't, because there aren't enough skulls!"

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Reply #13 - Jun 3^rd, 2009 at 12:03pm

Cheeky Monkey Offline
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spiker wrote on Jun 3^rd, 2009 at 11:46am:

At least I have lot of good stories about the CRAZY things people have said to me. �Truly. �Crazy.

Ooh ooh! Do tell!

"Depends. Did you feel anything for the pumpkin? The midgets?" -Wildcard&&&&If Mary Matalin and James Carville can make it work, ANYONE can. The end.

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Reply #14 - Jun 3^rd, 2009 at 12:28pm

QueenMorgaus Offline
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Whiel waiting for Spiker, I have a receiving line story. I was the title character of a heavy show, lots of crying onstage and all that. One of my adult lead actors, who never learned his lines and would point out to me the lines I missed, had his father attend a show. Apperently his dad was in a well-known movie in a well known character role. Anyway, he came through the receiving line and after the initial handshake and "good job", he proceeded to give me acting notes! Of all the nerve. He should have been speaking to his son.

I hate receiving lines. Hate them, hate them, hate them. I hate being in them and I hate going through them (even when I have friends in the show).

"I don't need to compromise my principles, because they don't have the slightest bearing on what happens to me anyway." - Calvin and Hobbes

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Reply #15 - Jun 3^rd, 2009 at 1:36pm

kitchensinger Offline
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Some interesting, interesting stories. �Especially the poop change in the dressing room one. �That one tops the cake. �I can honestly say that I've never had an experience like any of these.

I used to not like the idea of receiving lines, but now I do. � Whether as an audience member or a cast member, I've never seen a situation where the audience was forced to compliment. �If they didn't want to, they could just avoid the crowd and leave. �No one notices. �

I think that if an audience member feels the need to express their gratitude beyond the applause, well I'm happy to oblige by receiving them. �It's always a reminder to me of why I do theatre...which is to give all I can to the kind folks who come, watch, applaud, and shake my hand after. So far I haven't had any weird things said to me yet. *knock on wood*

But on the other side of the line...I have heard sad things that cast members have done to audience members who have approached them in a receiving line; such as being ungracious in receiving a compliment. � Bad, bad for your reputation and BAD for business, folks.

�

"I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm."--Calvin Coolidge&&&&"Some families go water skiing together; others go camping.....our family does THEME PARTIES." --my brother Ben

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Reply #16 - Jun 3^rd, 2009 at 1:42pm

The Dark Knight Ex Member

I don't care for recieving lines, as an actor, or a member of the audience. I find them awkward and uncomfortable. And,as I have said before, I never take at face value any compliment given inside a theatre. It always seems to be likely to have been given out of a sense of obligation as sincerity.

On the reverse side of bad theatre manners, I conisder it incredibly bad manners for theaters to ask or instruct people to applaud, something of which I see a lot these days (usually in the introduction speach). Fine, people may be rude and not applaud. that does not justify the tacky rudeness of actually asking for applause, and I pity the performer so starved for approval that they get a sense of validation out of applause they had to ask for.

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Reply #17 - Jun 3^rd, 2009 at 2:20pm

Diane Offline
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It wasn't until I moved to southern California that I experienced the "receiving line" and it really took me off guard. I had always changed out of costume and then gone out into the theater or lobby to meet friends and family... and as mentioned, if someone I didn't know stuck around to speak with me, that really meant a lot.

I've learned to deal with the receiving line because a specific theater's base audience (generally the older members) expect and seem to enjoy it. However, I also don't want people feeling obligated to give "you did a nice job", etc. and I, as an audience member, don't want to feel obligated either.

I've seen mediocre shows before and listened to "you did a fantastic job" or "that was the best play I've seen" from audience members and I wonder to myself .... do they mean that or are they just being nice or saying what they think they are supposed to say. Of course, theater folks do tend to be more "critical" (constructively of course!) of a production than many of the average theater goer.

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Reply #18 - Jun 3^rd, 2009 at 2:41pm

JingleBeq Offline
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I'm not a fan of the lines. If I'm in a show where that's the done thing, I stand in the line, but I'd usually rather be in the dressing room changing back to street clothes. And when I go to see a show, if I want to say hi to a friend, I go directly to them and don't give empty handshakes and compliments to everyone else in the cast.

The last show I was in was Hello, Dolly. I ended up with a heck of a lot of rouge on my cheeks, which was usually what people commented on as they came through the line. I made a game of counting how many comments I got on my makeup...

I make pretty things.

Though she lived alone, apart, hope lay nestling at her heart.

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Reply #19 - Jun 4^th, 2009 at 10:51am

Phirechild Offline
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A timely article on Standing Ovations in utah
http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-8155-on-report.html

Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day; Light a man on fire and he'll be warm the rest of his life.

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