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O, malignant and ill-boding audience!

June 30, 2009 · 16 comments

Theatre actors sure do have it hard.  They spend weeks preparing for a role, they suffer through tech (including the stinging barbs of stage managers who would dare to suggest that actors can’t find their light), and when all of that is done they have to suffer through the rude behaviour of the average audience.

In the last several months there have been several high-profile examples of actors getting annoyed at audience behaviour: from extravagant outbursts by Patti Lupone, to chiding diatribes from Daniel Radcliffe (lo, a true stage veteran), to debates over the use of Twitter mid-spectacle, to reprimands for sending text messages mid-show (blame Patti Lupone for this one, too… which makes me wonder if the problem isn’t really just Ms. Lupone…), there are tales all over the internets that bemoan the lack of etiquette of theatre patrons.

Hey. Actors. Suck it up.

Think back 400 years, to Elizabethan times, when theatre ticket prices were about on par with cinema ticket prices now; when a whopping 10% or so of the London population attended the theatre regularly.  In those times, vendors sold food and drink to the crowd during the show (although I believe the use of hot dog cannons was prohibited).  Patrons used the theatre as a social gathering place, often paying almost no attention to the work on-stage because they wanted to catch up on the latest plague gossip from fellow audience members. Most theatre took place in the afternoon (because no artificial light was used, and the theatre had no roof over the stage), so on top of all this, patrons wore hats and jostled for good views of the stage.  Actors were occasionally jeered or had things thrown at them.  Although accounts of Elizabethan audiences are likely embellished, it is safe to say that today’s actors have it pretty damned good, by comparison.

So. Why the snobbery?  My brain cannot reconcile the fact that the theatre community moans and wails about the decline in audience numbers while simultaneously waxing sanctimonius about the lack of audience members who exhibit ‘proper’ behaviour. Here’s why.

When a production is doing well, and has good word-of-mouth (which is forever and always the best form of publicity), it attracts patrons of immense, incalculable value: those who do not normally attend the theatre. These are the only people, by definiton, that can grow the theatrical audience.  And these patrons, in large part, are unaware of theatrical etiquette.  How dare we expect them to know all the rules?  If these patrons behave ‘badly’ in the theatre, they do it out of naivete, not malice.  To respond to this innocence with punishment is to drive them away again, in the same way that one bad experience in a retail store is enough to make a customer vow to never return.

Some stage actors have a ridiculous sense of entitlement when it comes to audience behaviour.  I don’t know any experienced stage actor who doesn’t have several stories about distracting audience antics; however, I get incensed at actors who scoff or rail against that behaviour as being unconscionable. Are you annoyed that the audience isn’t paying attention to you? Work harder. Your job is to make them pay attention. It is hard for me, sometimes, to keep from getting annoyed at audience distractions, but I am training myself to think that such occurences represent the behaviour of someone I want to see again in the audience.  For the umpteenth time on this blog, I reiterate: our job is to serve the audience… NOT the other way around.

There is a reality about changing audience demographics and audience behaviour that the theatre community tends to ignore in favor of reminiscences about the halcyon days before the invention of the Internet and the middle class.  An old piece of farm wisdom says that you can either cut a path through your field and then watch the cows make one of their own, or you can watch where your cows wander and then cut the path under them.  I think we do our art a tremendous disservice — rendering it inaccessible — by setting up a system where audience members feel they have to take a class on how to go to the theatre before they go to the theatre.  Just get them in the frickin’ door. Once they’re in, then, carefully choose your reaction to the odd text message, candy wrapper, or mumble from the crowd.

Let me finish with a nod to some folks who are Doing It Right.  Last week I saw a Fringe Festival production called “Countries Shaped Like Stars“, from Mi Casa Theatre.  These Ottawa artists created a delightful piece of theatre that not only makes you feel like you’re at home, in your own living room, but actually encourages and celebrates the kinds of fourth-wall-breaking behaviour that snob artists find unbearable. Any human being who walks into that show not knowing what “theatre” is about feels welcome, at home, tickled, and encouraged to come back; theatre snobs like me are reminded of how we get it all wrong. What a rare and delightful feat.  And although I didn’t experience it myself, I’m sure that the cast would have acknowledged a text-messaging audience member with a wink and a cookie instead of a crude removal at the hands of Patti Lupone.

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7 Other Comments

{ 2 trackbacks }

Mooney on Theatre » I couldn’t have said it better – audience etiquette
June 30, 2009 at 5:58 pm
“Hey. Actors. Suck it up.” « The Next Stage
July 2, 2009 at 5:26 am

{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }

Tony June 30, 2009 at 12:14 pm

Often I wonder if we really want people to come at all. From the first contact with box office people to kicking people out as soon as possible after the show’s done, we don’t really act very welcoming as an industry

Sterling June 30, 2009 at 12:32 pm

Great post and bang-on application of the general principle that far too many theatre folks need to learn: “our job is to serve the audience… NOT the other way around.”

And kudos to Team CSLS. I was unable to see the show because they did their job so well that they were selling out a hour and half before curtain (maybe even earlier).

I know you will be shocked by this Chris, but when theatre practitioners serve their audience the audience rewards them with attendance and rabid word of mouth. Crazy, crazy stuff. :)

happierman June 30, 2009 at 5:08 pm

Can I also add that F.T. Marinetti the Italian Futurists of the early 1900s would break seats, deliberately double-sell seats, and literally fight with audience members? While this sounds really uncomfortable, it was a model of 4th-wall-destruction and an early movement toward the idea that the audience should always be a character in every production.

PS: When you live in NYC, it’s amazing how many people who claim they were at that Patti LuPone show.

Megan Mooney June 30, 2009 at 5:38 pm

I think I might be in love with you…

This post rocks my world.

Thank you to Simon Ogden for pointing me in the direction of my new soul-mate

Kate Foy June 30, 2009 at 5:55 pm

And then there’s S-E Asian theatre where you come and go, chat, eat … play, snooze. So much for our own sanitised ’sitting in a big dark room with a bunch of strangers stuff’ called theatre.

Great post Kris.

PS I believe theatre in the UK after the restoration was even more rollicky.

Matt Moore July 2, 2009 at 2:29 am

While I agree with you on the whole, I don’t think it’s an outlandish request to want people to treat their theatre experience with respect.

If someone was behaving that way during a movie, everyone there would be annoyed.

krisjoseph July 2, 2009 at 8:12 am

Foregoing the fact that I think the definition of what is respectful is changing, the real thrust of my argument relates to choosing the onstage reaction to the in-the-house annoyance. My blood boils when a cell phone goes off, but I think it would be rude to bark at someone for doing it… there are, as a parallel, alternatives to beating a child in order to discipline it!

Kate Foy July 5, 2009 at 3:57 am

‘You may have a gift. You’re not it.’ Well said Mr B.

This comment was originally posted on Cambiare Productions

Benjamin Wright July 5, 2009 at 3:35 pm

I agree. That is one of the big branding ideas of theater in Austin. When you add the personal touch, you offer accessibility from artist to patron who may be an artist themselves. This should be a priority for theater creators in Austin.

This comment was originally posted on Cambiare Productions

Kris Joseph July 5, 2009 at 7:31 pm

I never perform without opening my THIRD shakra. But I can do it WHILE twittering. Kudos to Mr Faire for Doin’ It Right!

This comment was originally posted on Cambiare Productions

Travis Bedard July 5, 2009 at 8:09 pm

I’m actually sad you’ll miss this, because I’d love your take on it. For my money a really nicely cut and performed piece that honors the text without deifying it.

This comment was originally posted on Cambiare Productions

Travis Bedard July 5, 2009 at 8:10 pm

We’ll get there. It’s all on us.

This comment was originally posted on Cambiare Productions

Sterling Lynch July 5, 2009 at 8:15 pm

Kudos to the team for a simple and brilliant idea and thanks for sharing it in this post.

I bet every single person who attended the performance told at least one person — if not everyone — about the experience.

This comment was originally posted on Cambiare Productions

paul July 10, 2009 at 12:54 pm

Wow, that’s amazing. That would’ve blown me away, I can only imagine what it did to someone, you know, with theater (theatre?) experience and stuff.

This comment was originally posted on Cambiare Productions

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