Slightly off topic, but have any others experienced the "audience stampede" at the end of symphonic concerts in their cities?
Sarasota is supposedly a cultural mecca but it is downright embarassing to be in the audience and watch hundreds of people on their way out the door barely after the final notes have sounded.
I am afraid we have all become way too impatient.

I haven't noticed the stampede of early exiters in Portland - probably because almost every performance around here seems to get a standing ovation - whether it deserves it or not.

sks,
last Sept when we were able to see the Ballet in Portland and the Taiko Drummers, I noticed that everyone was quiet.
We were, however, surprised that in both performances, in different halls, someone came out on the stage, thanked everone for being there and talked at great length..making those of us who were a bit impatient to see the performance, kind of squirmy in our seats.

I think part of the big rush to leave the room (in NYC) is that everyone wants to get to the car and out of the garage before the big lines and long waits . In a place like Portland, it seemed like most people walked out leisurely and were not dashing to their car in the garage.
I am looking forward to many more evenings in a Portland space watching ballet and listening to opera/concerts!

They just ain't got no raising!

Faina, your post about the 'sleeper' made me laugh. My poor step mother owns a bakery and she goes in at midnight and comes home at 1 in the afternoon. She lays down for 2 hours and naps. Then she gets up to pick up her niece at school.

She will stay up for dinner, and then go to bed at 9 to 10 and sleep another two hours, She is totally sleep deprived! (she has finaly sold the place and will be retired shortly. Thank God! She was killing herself after 20 years of it.)

Anyway we bought her very expensive theater tickets, and she fell asleep. Thank goodness she doesn't snore. I wish coffee would help, but she can drink ten cups and still go to sleep. I would have a heart attack, and not sleep for a week.

I was singing at a concert and she fell asleep. I tried not to take it personally because I know how she is. I know she doesn't mean it.

But......the people who talk during a performance drive me nuts. I also do not understand why people do not remove crying babies. When we tape our performances there is always at least one song ruined from a screaming kid.

That is bad but not as bad as spending a couple of hundred on tickets and having people talking so loud you can't even focus on your performance.

Or people/kids kicking the seat behind
you! That is right up there too. That also happens to me on flights.

I had a lady playing cards on the seat back all the way to Vegas, she would shuffle the cards and then smack them down three times on the tray, and shuffle and smack three more times on the tray....

After 30 minutes I finally said something. I was trying to sleep, and it was shaking the seat, a lot. Well needless to say she was pi@@ed off. It was even worse because she was also going to the same convention I was. I had to see her the whole three days I was there. We had a class together and were on the same team for something, she would not even speak to me or look at me.

There, my rant was travel related.

I know I should have saved it for friday. sks you are not alone!

I am soooo glad to know that I am not the only one so very annoyed with some theater goers. In fact I don't even go to the movie theater in my city due to all the complaints listed here. I love seeing a movie on a big screen, but finally decided to just rent the DVD's. So much nicer (except for not seeing the movies on the big screen).

Somewhere along the way people did not learn what is acceptable behavior when attending public performances. It is a shame. You are not alone in your complaints sks.

Budman-
I still wear a suit and tie along with my Fedora to an afternoon "Businessman's Special" at SBC Park (SBC=Should Be Called Pac Bell).

And I always make sure to say "Sir" after using a 4-letter word swearing at a player. Gotta set a good example for the younger fan.

Oh...and I even keep my pinky out after my 8th and 9th beers.

We went and saw "Lennon" at The Orph in SF a few weeks ago. Some "fan" felt that he had to add his editorial comment by doing one of those "popping hand claps" and adding a "wooooo" every time one of the players would say something about stopping the war...cutting Nixon...J. Edgar Hoover etc.
I thought I was the only one he was annoying but at intermission I heard people sitting behind him mentioning the possibility of him not coming back for the 2nd act. No such luck.

Still a rebel without a clue. >-

Hey Kal honey,
....."those "popping hand claps"...which brings me to my next complaint! Why do people have to clap so loud! When did it become the thing to do when applauding to also whistle and yell? (when in a theatre, not a ball field)

Hahahaha...Dammit, Ms Scarlett! Are we gettin' old?!?!?

Golf claps!!!!

I've never understood "The Holler". But during a play or a musical???

Tolerance ends at the tip of my tympanic membrane!

It makes me wonder about the possibility of starting some sort of business where you could observe the audience and lightly shock anyone being inappropriate! lol
If only! And why on earth is it OK for night clubs to have a dress code but not the theatre??

Thanks for all the stories - It makes me feel better to know I'm not the only one annoyed by this. Someday when I have kids, I promise to teach them to sit through performances (including movies!) without being rude.

Sara

ps - and now that I know about the ffr&r I will utilize it - for all who were put off by MY inappropriate post.

Hi sara, actually your thread was enjoyable, and it gave everyone a chance to vent!!! When you post on FFR&R you will find posters disagreeing from time to time also. Sort of like a disfunctional family gathered around the Thanksgiving table.

I saw "Steel Magnolias" tonight, and in the row behind me a couple sat rummaging around in a big bag of Twizzlers... it took them the whole first act to munch their way through it. They were oblivious to the shushing from their whole row. They didn't return for Act II.

robhart - How nice that they didn't return (what was wrong? Did the lobby run out of plastic wrapped candy?) But really - I can't imagine not staying for a performance - even if I wasn't thrilled with it.

Actually I was surprised at the excellent attention given to the show by an audience of largely high school age (balcony anyway)at "Wicked" in Chicago last week. They did trample a bit getting in/out for intermission washroom break- but for the "closeness" they did just fine.

But I have to add my real lifelong pet peeve, and that is someone chewing gum next to me. And especially if they snap or pop it every few chews. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me on a plane or in a show. I think I would take boom box noise over that sound any day. In a movie, this makes me move- always.

And since someone mentioned baseball (talk about stretching the thread)- I am SO HAPPY that the team in baseball (Chicago White Sox) with the best record in Majors today, May 19 at 29-12 has such an excellent park. BUT at the game Tuesday night I have observed that
fair weather fans are bringing the North side party style South. Never saw a drunken fall down a row anytime at the Cell before. Yet here they were by 3rd inning, taking off shirts/ whipping them around at seated viewers, and actually tossing plastic bottles about.

That last one did him in. We got one young culprit removed discretely. ANY place in public regardless of theater, concert, sporting event etc.: public loudness, kids screaming endlessly, and drunken behaviors should have some consequences. Removal.

And FYI the new Cell section "FUNDAMENTALS" is such a big hit that I have a friend who is a die-hard Cubs fan bringing his son there. It's a new additional structure left of outfield bleachers where the kids can sign up for 45 minute sessions working with trainers. You can also view the game just feet from the field while your kid is having his/her session. The sessions are by appointment and run all afternoon/night through game days. They were doing "grounder" practice through the game on Tuesday night.

Isn't that plastic around everything they sell in the shows a real (#&%^*#(!
Any smart chemists or entrepreneurs out there- please make a noiseless candy wrap! Chips are too noisy and messy and shouldn't be sold in the movie theaters at all.

I am of the opinion that etiquette is more of a result of your upbringing and values instilled socially or at home than products you have access to...If you want to eat noisy candy during a perfomrance quietly, you can, if you make an effort to do so...I found in Canada they offer tons of food options, but the audiences were very considerate so it didn't make a difference...I also remember an article about a concert in Japan I think it was, many years ago... The artist Prince had a song that involved the audience picking up and playing tamborines that were put on their chairs before the show in the first few rows. They were shocked to find them placed back on the chairs after the show. The kids didn't "assume" they could take them and no one told them they could...etiquette.

I'm amazed at how much interest this post has gotten. Sometimes I think I'm the only one who obsesses about theatre etiquette. Guess not!

These days even the candy wrapper situation is often mentioned in the pre-curtain speech right along with the "turn off your cell phones" request. At one off Broadway play, the announcement went something like this, "Normally we would request you not unwrap candy during the show, but since this is an intellectual show, we know that our audience is unusually intelligent, so we won't remind you." Everyone laughed. But within five minutes the man behind me started unwrapping candy. I shot a nasty glance at him. After about 5 of these, each time, my turning and giving him the evil eye, he finally said, "what is your problem?" After the show, I mentioned it was too bad he didn't fit the criteria mentioned of intelligent audience who didn't need to be reminded not to unwrap candy, to which he replied, "no one could have been bothered by that."

And speaking of cell phones, what's with all those watches people wear that beep every couple of minutes? That's enough to drive anyone crazy.

I suspect the big problem is that many people can no longer separate live theatre from watching TV or even movies. They tell me at the local cinema they purposely keep the sound so loud because so many people talk during the show, it's the only way they don't get complaints about the talking -- just play the volume over the talking! And others seem to think they're sitting at home in front of the TV where it's perfectly acceptable to constantly converse about the action on stage or on the screen!

Do you need to eat candy or some goodie through every visual event!

So that's why the theaters have raised the volume so much in last 2 or 3 years. I'm with LoveItaly, I have stopped going to the big screen completely. But because the volume is so LOUD- and not because of the bad etiquette.

Patrick,

You beat me to the punch on the watch thing!

Remember when we were kids and went to the movies? Back then, there were people called "ushers". A large part of an usher's job consisted of keeping the audience from becoming unruly. They "shushed" people, kept the audience from puting their feet up on the backs of chairs, and even found you a seat if you came in late!

These days the ushers (in movie houses) simply close the door and leave--only to return at the end of the film to clean up. They are not seen during the film and (I believe) live in terror of the audience. They are, after all. only teenagers.

I believe much of this overall problem is that many people believe if they've bought a ticket to something--anything--they have the right to behave in whatever fashion suits them. We have created a society where "The customer is always right" and this has spawned a subculture who act atrociously in restaurants, hotels, theatres, etc.

We have done this to ourselves and I applaud every theatre, restaurant and hotel that takes a stand and doesn't put up with this kind of nonsense.

I weep for the future.

AL

For the most part, I find people at broadway shows are appropriate. It's when you go to a show that kids go to and it can be awful. I saw a production of Annie. My kids were about 8 and 9 and they were so good. The two year old behind me that kicked my seat and screamed throughout the entire show really pissed me off! I paid 50 dollars a seat and I did not enjoy that show at all. I don't think children under 5 or 6 should be allowed in the theaters for broadway productions even if they are kid shows. At 50 dollars a seat, I expected to at least be able to hear the show!

All of you are making me feel better. I was beginning to think it was only me, LOL.

My family in the Ventura area have a movie theater they go to (think it is the AMC theater, but not sure) that has a silence code. Evidently it is shown on the screen before the movie starts. And consequently they get to actually enjoy the movies they go to as the code is enforced. Lucky them!

Our local cultral center is very upset because so few people go to the events the last year or two. Guess what I did at the beauty salon today. I asked "why". Guess what. Everyone started giving the reasons why they don't attend. Well I had a hard time not laughing (but it really is not funny is is sad). The reasons were the same that all of you have expressed here. One woman, a teacher, said "I know I have to put up with a lot on airplanes. If I want to travel I have to fly, so there is no choice. But I do not have to go to the theater, the concerts, the movies, as much as I would like to. Until they set down some rules and make sure they are enforced I am not spending another penny to be annoyed and frustrated all evening".

And just saw a segment the other night on the news

about low attendance at movie theaters. May the reasons listed here are a good part of this?

Perhaps everyone that has these thoughts and feeling should start communicating them to the appropriate theater and let them know why they are not getting their patronage. Money does speak!