Is it just in the plays I'm participating/attending in Kansas City, or is it all over - that audiences are just getting ruder and ruder?

I'm talking about not only not showing up until 5 or 10 minutes late, but Park University Theatre (my alma mater, that I help out with from time to time) had a 'world-premiere' play, written by one of the students, last spring in the black box theatre. The Black Box is set up to where once the door is closed, it is CLOSED. There is NO way to seat people after the show starts without interupting EVERYTHING. On top of that, we had a sold-out show all three nights of performance - usually by 15 minutes before the show started. I not only had the 5 or 6 people those 5 or 10 minutes after, but actually had someone show up 30 minutes after the show started, expecting to be 'guaranteed' a seat. (No wonder movie theatres don't start when they say the show starts - not only for advertisements, but because people don't come in until after it's started .)

Then, we've got cell phones and pagers. Park has a notice in the program. The house manager says something as the people walk in. They've even taken to having a short announcement right before the show starts. And STILL we have people who seem to think it's okay to not only have it on, but to have the entire conversation in the theatre!

Then, we've got the talking during the play. I'm not meaning the small little conversations figuring out what's going on, or discussing characters or whatnot. I'm talking about the full-blown commentary I get from people behind me (my 'favorite' story had to be when I went and saw a local production of Brigadoon: the ladies behind my group talked about everything from 'the guy wearing the skirt' to 'oooh, do you think he killed that guy?'). Or even worse, talking about stuff that's not related to the show. (Park is currently doing The Laramie Project, and there were a couple of times during one performance where I could hear people behind me talking and giggling - during one of the more dramatic scenes in the thing.)

So, is it just bad luck on my part, or is this becoming an epidemic?

Angie

Do you have ushers at the doors?  Don't let people in after the show starts - if you put a notice on your tickets and posters then they can't complain (well - they still will but at least you can have a back up).

Also - have your ushers tell people to be quiet and talk to them about cell phones etc.

Yeah, rude audiences suck.  But, apparently, we're swapping stories, so here goes.

A few months ago, I was in a production of Nilo Cruz's A Bicycle Country.  Just a quick description of the scene, since most people don't know the play.  In the second act, the three characters are on a raft going to Florida from Cuba.  There's a sort-of, not-really love triangle thing going on, but one character has sorta let it go, although there's still some feeling for the girl.  So, this character's asleep and the other two decide to have sex.  It's a powerful scene because it's not romantic-comedy-style, ooh-let's-get-it-on sex.  It's embarrassing, confusing, etc.  Really mature sensibility here.  Quiet, powerful scene, right?

One night, this old lady in the front row, in a whisper so loud she might as well have been talking, says to her husband, "Are they gonna f--- now?"