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

It is nice when the other audience members do the policing for you.  I was getting ready to go over to ask an audience member to put her cell phone away. I was house managing, and it was obvious that she was disturbing everyone. She was text messaging! That was new one. That lovely green glow could be seen all over the theater. She must not have been getting very good reception because it looked like a lighthouse beacon flashing around the room! The woman next to her finally asked her why she bothered buying a ticket to talk on the phone. I didn't have to say anything! The phone went away.

Linda

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.

No help here, other than what others have said, but since we're swapping stories:

My dad, now long since deceased, used to like to go to the old standard musicals.  One time we went to see Gypsy.  If you know the beginning, Louise and June are onstage trying out for Uncle Somebody's show, and Rose enters from the back of the auditorium calling, "Sing out, Louise!"

So Dad is on the aisle, and when Rose enters (full makeup, costume, and a dog under her arm), he whirls around to her and yells, "Shaddup, goddammit, can't you see there's a show going on?"

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?"

It isn't your fault.  I watched a few plays that had some of the rudest audiences.  You're not the only one irritated.  As an actor, it can be very uncomfortable acting in front of people who don't even pay attention. But it is even worse when you're an audience member and you are the one who wants to see the play.

Of course, the show must go on!

I just finished directing a melodrama for a middle school.  Generally our high school and middle school students are quite well-mannered--but after turning around three times and instructing a row of high schoolers to be quiet, I had to threaten them to be quiet or I would remove them from the auditorium.  (as a teacher and a director, I have that authority)

A few years ago, I took one of my classes to see Shakespeare's Pericles at a local rep company.  Our group was split, so I was sitting apart from a few of the students, but my other chaperons were right above them (and did nothing).  Right after the play, there was a discussion group that the actors were going to hold with the school students.  The actor who played Pericles actually started off by discussing theatre etiquette, because some of my students had decided to "take a nap," "chat," "lounge," etc. in the front row.  Nothing got their attention better.

As for the cell-phone issue, we've created a special "performance" any time a cell phone goes off in the audience.  We stop the play, play some march music, have a few designated actors run out on stage, ask for the phone, talk to the caller and tell him he's interrupting a play, and put a cheap, ugly, decorated hat on the offender's head.  Then we hand back the phone, with the phone turned off.  (This is, of course, after we have written the standard note in the program, made at least one annoucement before the show begins, etc.) 

Are audiences rude?  Yes!  What can we do?  Educate them!  Will they listen/learn?  Probably not. 

That is fantastic!

I just finished up the show Nunsense, I played Sister Mary Leo and the audience last night was one of the rudest that I have ever had.  This one person was eating chips of some sort (a no-no of course) and they kept crinkling the bag.  And of course the cell phones with the really annoying rings not the good old fashioned "ring ring" but the latin music and the rap songs.  Also, this one woman kept singing along, which is fine, but she was louder than we were!