I couldn’t have said it better – audience etiquette

By Megan Mooney

This article by Kris Joseph makes my heart sing.  It says all the things I have been trying to say for ages, but in such a great clear way, with excellent examples.

Thank you to Kris Joseph (@krisjoseph)for this, and thank you to Simon Ogden (@thenextstagemag) for pointing me to the article.

So, to reiterate…

GO READ THIS ARTICLE

Here are some excerpts:

In the last several months there have been several high-profile examples of actors getting annoyed at audience behaviour: … there are tales all over the internets that bemoan the lack of etiquette of theatre patrons.

Hey. Actors. Suck it up.

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.

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?

re 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.