Theater etiquette

[Jinglish]

Originally Posted by Grog12

Yeah...this doesn't work really...even in proffesional dance/theatre. We have a regular announcement at my ballet for both the proffessional and student productions and flashshy flashy flash.

Thank god we're finally getting our ushers trained.

This has been my experience. There's one ballet academy that rents out my school's theater once or twice a year, and their parents behave pretty well. This last show I did, though, was at the local community college, because a friend called me in to help. We announced several times that flash shouldn't be used as it's a matter of dancer safety, but a lot of the parents didn't seem to care.

[tech2000]

Originally Posted by thatactorguy

The theatre department at Murray State in Murray, KY (not to be confused with the Murray State in Utah) makes the actors & crew turn off their cell phones and turn them in to the SM, who locks the phones in a case, which gets locked in another cabinet somewhere. They have a three strikes rule, and it reflects badly on one's record should those strikes get broken. If you're caught with your cell, that's a strike right there, and the phone is immediately confiscated. I'm sure other universities have similar policies...

I like the turning in phones to the SM thing. I assume that is during both rehearsals and shows. I should get our hs director to do that, especially for actors during rehearsals and techs during shows.

[willbb123]

Originally Posted by tech2000

I like the turning in phones to the SM thing. I assume that is during both rehearsals and shows. I should get our hs director to do that, especially for actors during rehearsals and techs during shows.

Haha thats true...

I just designed for the show The Little Dog Laughed. Diane, the producer/manager, is on the phone with the writer of the movie they are trying to get made.

I'm not going to tell you how to write this. You must know that in theatre second acts tend to start off with a bang, an event or a recap. Or a reminder to turn off cell phones. Now, we don't have a problem with cell phones in the theatre in this town. We've simply stopped doing theatre all together. Choices were made.... Where was I? Oh right...

[photoatdv]

From my expreience cell phones causing problems is pretty rare (with equipment-- not attention spans). Our crew ALWAYS has our cell phones on us or within reach on vibrate. However we do not answer calls unless it is another crew member (or some pre-arranged extenuating circumstance-- I want to say our audio guy was on the phone once when one of his techs had a crisis on another show and our run crew chief had a family emergency right before a show once). This is mainly because we have lost comms during shows before and switched to cells. On one show we didn't have enough radios so I would call our spot op whenever there was a spot cue added (the director kept changing things during the show).

[shiben]

At Calvin, we have solved the issue of cell phone use in the theater department quite effectively. No one can use a cell phone in our venues at all. Literally. Our main venue, a 350 seat open vista stage, is build with 75% of its volume below ground, and our black box is in a fallout shelter. Both have a few feet of concrete and steel over them, and all the walls are sand-filled cinder block with acoustical panels on them.
There is no reception, and our department blocked a move to get a cell phone repeater installed specifically to boost signal to the theater. Unfortunately, we still have wifi. Most egregious offense ever was probably the person who tried to record from an HD video camera and at the same time send emails on their laptop. Disconnected the local wireless system and told him that if his camera didnt disappear he would be booted. He complained that I turned off the wireless and that I was rude to him. What a hoser.

[tweetersaway]

I know a guy who goes to shows at a local place regularly. I went with him once. Somebody's cell phone went off two seats down. He took it, turned it off, and didn't give it back until the end of the show. Now, if more patrons were like him...

[ReiRei]

I recently met a stage manager at OSF who can hold phone conversations and text during the show he's calling and he's never missed a cue.

[RichMoore]

If it were legal in the U.S. of A. I would definitely install a cell-phone signal blocker into my concert hall. We are one of, if not the only country in the world, where phone signals cannot be blocked.

It is bad enough that people are texting during a performance, but I have had to stop people from broadcasting a live performance using their phone cameras. If the talent's people were to see something like that happening, the lawsuits resulting from the violation of the rider would be extremely expensive.

As for the SM who can talk, text and call show cues, all at the same time....he will never work for me. Do one thing at a time and do it the very best that you can.

[Chris15]

Originally Posted by RichMoore

We are one of, if not the only country in the world, where phone signals cannot be blocked.

Sir appears to be grossly misinformed. Australian law specifically prohibits the use of a jammer. A friend who works for a telco tells me that the fine is 50K for possession 150K is it's switched on when the suits arrive.

If I look up OFCOM in the UK, it is illegal in the UK under Section 68 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 to use any apparatus for the purposes of interfering with any wireless telegraphy. [url]http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/jammers[/quote]

In fact wikipedia does a halfway reasonable summation of the legal status of these THINGS... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_...mer#Legalities

[kiwitechgirl]

Originally Posted by RichMoore

As for the SM who can talk, text and call show cues, all at the same time....he will never work for me. Do one thing at a time and do it the very best that you can.

I half-agree, half-disagree with this! Texting during a show is a huge no-no in my book (phone stays off and in my bag when I'm on show call), but I also think that a great stage manager should be able to multi-task. I work in a venue where on a straight play I have me as SM and a single operator, and that expands to a sound operator and an ASM on musicals (I think our production of The Producers 18 months ago is probably the only time that show has ever been done with a crew of four!); I can call cues, sort out someone's radio mic pack (I never have radio mic techs) and figure out how the next scene change is going to work given that something has jammed or broken - if I couldn't multi-task my job would be way more difficult.