Theater etiquette

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Man I couldn't agree more about the severe lack of etiquette in the theatre these days. I agree that everyone should be welcome, however there demands a level of respect no matter who you are. That respect; I believe, is partly displayed by 'dressing the part', business casual isn't all that hard to achieve... by showing a little (now unfortunately, not so) common sense when it come to behavior, ie. cell phones, talking, etc...

A few weeks ago I was in looking out the booth window before the show, the house was open and I was noticing that alot of people playing with their phones. So we start, I drop the house to half and then out a about a minute or so later. I counted 28 people playing with their phones still in a house of about 140... that's sad.

Alan...
 
its not only the audience members, did anyone notice that during the CMA awards Brad Paisley whipped out his Blackberry to update his Twitter? yes, you're famous, but that doesnt give you the right to treat your fans like that, accept your award, say your speech and get your ass off the deck.

Might not agree with me, but hey, im 14 and an LD that hates it when people do that. (stop the show for personal reasons)
 
MSLD said:
its not only the audience members, did anyone notice that during the CMA awards Brad Paisley whipped out his Blackberry to update his Twitter?
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Wouldn't it have been cool if a rogue follow spot operator at the pointed him out as he did it.

hmmm... we might be onto something here. CB could become the official sponsor some of the "Stop texting during events now!" campaign. How much do you think the bribe would have to be to get a follow spot op to do this? It would be career suicide, but what a way to go out in a blaze of glory. If we all chipped in $5...

Maybe we could find a way to give the person a fall back job. CW do you think you could grant the spot asylum in Pageantland for a while? We'll put ruinexplorer to work on the getaway car. Dave I bet Rach would be glad to chip in a chunk of your vast empire's wealth to see this happen.

:twisted:
 
gafftaper said:
Wouldn't it have been cool if a rogue follow spot operator at the pointed him out as he did it.
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In Mr. Paisley's defense, he was not at the awards--he appeared via satellite from home waiting for his wife to give birth. I don't think he twitted, I believe he just looked for the "It's a boy" message. [Edit: speaking of the ACMAs, not the CMAs, Sorry, MSLD. We're both wrong--it was the CMT Music Awards.] My father went bowling while I was being born, and has never heard the end of it.:rolleyes:
 
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BOWLING!?!?!? That's justifiable homicide in the eyes of any jury. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury... He deserved it." "Case dismissed".
 
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The audience members are not the only ones guilty of this texting epidemic. Over the last year I did some work for a performing arts high school, and no threat, no matter how severe, could get those kids to ignore their cell phones. It didn't matter if they were waiting for a scene shift, carrying a corner of something heavy, or sitting in class; if the phone vibrated, they HAD to look at it and respond. Even now, working for a well-respected summer theatre, I've had to stand by while my boss (the ME) takes a call from her mother, and during a show backstage glows from more than just run lights.

Like it or not, this texting thing isn't going to go away. I agree that our best hope is education, but I also feel that if we as crew members are going to complain about audience members texting, then we need to make sure that we're setting the proper example.
 
gafftaper said:
Maybe we could find a way to give the person a fall back job. CW do you think you could grant the spot asylum in Pageantland for a while? We'll put ruinexplorer to work on the getaway car. Dave I bet Rach would be glad to chip in a chunk of your vast empire's wealth to see this happen.

:twisted:
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Are you suggesting that we send someone to help 'dip keep the raccoons company?:rolleyes:

As for the getaway car, we already have the back half in this year's Pageant. Ruinexplorer just needs to build the front half:twisted:
 
cdub260 said:
Are you suggesting that we send someone to help 'dip keep the raccoons company?:rolleyes:

As for the getaway car, we already have the back half in this year's Pageant. Ruinexplorer just needs to build the front half:twisted:
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I'm still looking for the horn that plays "Dixie". Techs of Hazard anyone?
 
Seriously? One source: Dukes of Hazzard General Lee Dixie Car Horn - WOL430.
proxy.php

This Dukes of Hazzard car air horn by Wolo will have your vehicle sounding just like the General Lee flying through Dixie! Inspired by the extremely popular television show (and also the recent movie starring Jessica Simpson), these super-loud air-powered musical horns attract immediate attention with 5 trumpets playing the Dukes of Hazzard Horn Sounds at 118 decibels!
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I haven't noticed too many cell phone uses problems during shows at my high school, although that's partly because I don't have a great view of the audience. We have a couple of student makeup artists who don't seem to care that their phones can interfere with our mics, though.

Camera flashes are really more of a problem for us, and those almost never happen except at the mid-high plays. I ran followspot for a couple of ballet shows at the local community college's theater, though, and I must say that some ballet parents have a bad habit of disregarding about half a dozen "no flash" warnings. They don't seem to get that there's enough light on stage and that flash kills the colors.
 
On these same lines... Does anyone have a pre-recorded audio clip of an annocment about turning off cell phone, and no flash photography or anything along these lines...
 
Jinglish said:
We have a couple of student makeup artists who don't seem to care that their phones can interfere with our mics, though.
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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 don't have so much of a problem at Playhouse. The veterans know better, and oftentimes already have their phones off or silenced when I make the announcement at first readthrough. It's the new people- usually kids- who don't silence or turn off their phones, but they're also new enough that it's very easy to put the fear of God in them :)

We had a sound op who was always forgetting to turn off her phone, until I pointed out to her during one of those buzzing sounds that it was her phone that was the problem. She's turned it off ever since...
 
So for the longest time our sound operators kept blaming everyone's cellphones ringing as the cause of buzzing noises in out headsets and sometimes our speakers. Because some of our sound operators in the high school were just lazy and I know for a fact that sometimes it was just bad cables, I left my phone on. Nothing happened when my phone rang, buzzed, or did anything slightly angry at me. I even put it in various places around our sound and lights booth and nothing happened.

A few months before I graduated, we had a professional sound guy come in to help us set up some new equipment and he said that due to some sort of frequency issue or something, the only cellphone carrier that interfered with our equipment was at&t. It made sense that my phone did interfere with our stuff since I go through us cellular.

However, I do recognize that cellphones are a major problem. More that people are being distracted by them during show runs and rehearsals and such than making angry noises in equipment. I can't honestly tell people anymore that their specific cellphones will interfere with our equipment, but I do warn them against using cellphones during any show time because it is rude and holds everyone up.

I kicked someone one of my crew members out of a wet tech because he wouldn't stop texting during it and he was supposed to be up on the catwalks focusing... pissed me off...
 
Jinglish said:
.
Camera flashes are really more of a problem for us, and those almost never happen except at the mid-high plays. I ran followspot for a couple of ballet shows at the local community college's theater, though, and I must say that some ballet parents have a bad habit of disregarding about half a dozen "no flash" warnings. They don't seem to get that there's enough light on stage and that flash kills the colors.
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The trick with stopping flash photography is to somehow let the parents know (be it through something in the program, or an announcement) that flash photography can be dangerous to the dancers. I've seen a dancer startled by a photo flash fall off pointe and injure herself quite badly. Then they're all worried about their little darling getting injured and tend to stop taking flash photos!
 
ReiRei said:
the only cellphone carrier that interfered with our equipment was at&t.

I kicked someone one of my crew members out of a wet tech because he wouldn't stop texting during it and he was supposed to be up on the catwalks focusing... pissed me off...
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I never knew that about AT&T- learn something new every day :)

And that guy wouldn't have worked on one of my shows anymore. Totally uncool, and I don't blame you...
 
kiwitechgirl said:
The trick with stopping flash photography is to somehow let the parents know (be it through something in the program, or an announcement) that flash photography can be dangerous to the dancers. I've seen a dancer startled by a photo flash fall off pointe and injure herself quite badly. Then they're all worried about their little darling getting injured and tend to stop taking flash photos!
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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.
 
Our head Audio guy takes phone calls about other sound gigs mid show, its ridiculous, this happens when we are setting up all the time and he just stops working, but during one show (music show) he simply stayed sitting where he was pulled out his phone and chatted away.

I do lighting, I'm glad I don't have to answer to him.

Nick
 
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