An actor takes the stage to display the performance he has been tirelessly rehearsing for months on end. He takes a look at the audience that has gathered in anticipation to see his art — and someone’s face is lit up bright blue from the phone in their lap.
The trend of phones being activated during performances has become a prevalent issue on Broadway in particular, possibly because many seasoned Broadway veterans have lashed out against rude audience members. Reactions span from Laura Benanti in She Loves Me, who completely stopped performing in the middle of a song to wait for a ringing phone to quiet down, to Patti LuPone in Shows for Days, who snatched a cellphone from the hands of a texting audience member, according to an article by Michael Riedel from the New York Post.
Phone usage, however, is not the only issue with audience etiquette during theater performances. Makaila McColley, a freshman studying theater, said she has noticed a great amount of disrespectful audience conduct in her experience on stage.
McColley said disrespect can take on many different forms, such as talking, being on their phones, eating food out of loud bags or simply sleeping.
Some of Ohio University’s student actors choose to be understanding of the audiences, despite the experienced performers on Broadway.
McColley sometimes doesn’t mind talking audiences if it is in response to something that happened on stage.
“It’s sometimes how people react,” she said.
Alec Ring, a freshman studying theater, said from his experience, most people are respectful during performances.
In Athens and similar theater environments, however, cellphone usage remains an issue.
Though he said he does not find disrespect to be too big of an issue, Ring said “every once in a while, there are people who are on their phone throughout the whole show.”
That is a point of annoyance for actors at all levels.
“Just because phones have become more prevalent does not mean that common decency or all-around manners should be diminished,” McColley said.
McColley also found great importance in how the actor handles those distractions and said she definitely does not think it’s OK to break character. McColley said she could never see herself responding to those audience members during the show.
“I could see something bothering me and dealing with it after the show, but I would never lash out at an audience,” she said.
McColley can’t remember any particular disturbance in any audience she’s encountered because she has to ignore everything that’s going on off stage, unless it’s feedback.
“The issues have to be dealt with some other way,” she said. “The show must go on.”
