Live Theatre SCs

[morgana]

I also once witnessed a symphony conductor step down from his platform and turn towards the audience as he waited for the RUDE late people to finish talking/laughing in the aisle and get in their seats. The deer in the headlights look these people got when they realized everyone was watching them was priceless.

This brought back a memory from YEARS ago. I was listening to a folk singer, in a very small nightclub venue. The two "ladies" at the table in front of me, right at the edge of the stage, just would not shut up. Most of the audience could hear them clearly, and several people ( ) shushed them repeatedly. Did no good.

What finally did shut them up was the singer stepping away from his microphone in the middle of a song, walking with his guitar up to the edge of the stage *directly* in front of them and less than a foot away (like I said, small venue), and finishing his song singing right at them.

Of course, the noise of the rest of the audience giggling was almost as bad, but at least they got up and left so the rest of the show could go on uninterrupted.

[Barefootgirl]

Even the really big stars have rude people in their audiences. Even Al Pacino.

I knew i remembered this story from somewhere. It's taken from a Ralph Fiennes fansite, iof all places...

While Al Pacino was playing the lead in Hughie, a one-man play by Eugene O'Neill, in Los Angeles, a mobile started ringing, and kept ringing.

"Answer the damn thing!" he shouted, and then beckoned for its owner to hand over the phone. To thunderous applause, he roared into it: "This is Al Pacino. I'm trying to do a show here! Call back later."

[Pagan]

I'm in a LOT of community theater preformances, and the worst thing is when someone's cell phone goes off during a preformance. It DESTROYS the illusion.

The Santa Fe Opera doesn't allow cell phones or pagers in the theatre at all. If you're a doctor, etc., you check it in outside. If it goes off during a performance, an usher will come and get you. Someone comes in late, they have to wait until the first intermission. The ushers don't even let you in the back. And, except for certain operas, no children are allowed. Now, I know some people don't like things like that but, really, a performance of "Lucia di Lamamoor" and a lot of other operas is no place for a child! And very few small children are going to sit through a 3-4 hour opera that doesn't even start until 9pm (not dark enough until then)!

[AmericanZero8503]

I work in audio production at school. We went to a conference and was learning how to use audio software. The guy hosting the lecture was telling us a story about how they were recording a pianist in Sydney when a cell phone went off in the audience. The audience had full knowledge that a CD was being recorded that night. The pianist stopped his set, got up, and stopped his performance. However the guy at the lecture showed us how to remove the cell phone ring from the audio...now if we could do that in real life.

[Mixed Bag]

I hope these cages come to be installed as decorative trim, if necessary, rather than an excuse to demolish a fine old building which can't be unobtrusively retrofitted--lots of now-quaint items started out as utilitarian.

But will the cage around the building prevent two-way radio communication between two cellphones that are both inside? Woe to the crew with a nearly sold-out performance who won't ask others to move so a large group of last-minute arrivals can sit together.

[Darkmage]

Decorating tip

I hope these cages come to be installed as decorative trim, if necessary, rather than an excuse to demolish a fine old building which can't be unobtrusively retrofitted--lots of now-quaint items started out as utilitarian.

But will the cage around the building prevent two-way radio communication between two cellphones that are both inside? Woe to the crew with a nearly sold-out performance who won't ask others to move so a large group of last-minute arrivals can sit together.

1) Just cover the walls in chicken wire then paint over it. Now you have a cool artsy look that just happens to block most cell and pager signals. It won't be perfect, but it should be good enough. To do it right you would want a fine copper mesh, but that is a lot more expensive then chicken wire. Another note, to make the cage work you have to do the ceiling and the floor. You can probably get away with not doing the floor, but the ceiling is a must.

2) Two-way radio within, no problem, those do point to point communication so they will operate within the cage. However, cell phone walkie-talkie feature will not work because it round trips to the cell tower which is not reachable from within the cage.

[XCashier]

Even the really big stars have rude people in their audiences. Even Al Pacino.

Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon Dursley from the Harry Potter movies, amongst other roles) has had similar problems. Taken from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0341743/bio

June 2005: he ordered a man out of the National Theatre, London, when his mobile phone went off for the sixth time during a performance of Alan Bennett's "The History Boys". The actor stopped in the middle of his lines, fixed the offender with an icy stare and said: "I am asking you to stand up, leave this auditorium and never, ever come back". Other members of the audience applauded as the man left the theatre.