[img]http://www.amadrama.co.uk/images/500.jpg[/img]

And for my 500th Post.... I create a New Topic...

Here's a list of favorite things which puts actors off...

Mobile Phones....
But here's how to deal with them!!!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2755875.stm

I had a mobile phone go off during an important little speech during one play. I was slagging the unknown person off afterwards in the pub only to find it was the mobile a friend of mine. Needless to say he had remembered he had to get up early in the morning so couldn't stay for a drink.

Btw George, you don't mind me using this topic for my 250th post do you? Much obliged!

Certainly not my good friend.... Fell free.... ok not that free...

Other things...

How about the little kid in the front row, picking his nose, then just as you reach the climax of the speech... Out of the corner of your eye... He eats it...

Or....

Some old bloke, about ninety twelve, comes to quite a few of our shows sits in the front row and nods off. We'd get a bit downcast if it wasn't for the fact he does it most of the other shows he goes to as well. Perhaps he lives at a junction of a railway line and a motorway, so the theatre is nice and quiet even with a bunch of luvvies strutting the stage!!

hmmm at least he paid for a ticket!!!!

I was doing Gerald in Me and My Girl, Lambeth Walk i'm out in the audience singing away...

2 Girls from an other Group I work with were in the audience in front of me, so they decided to show me what make their Bras were...

They lifted their tops, to the "disgust" of the little old ladies either side of them, but to the amusement of their little old husbands and flashed at me...

The sad thing...

I didn't notice... That would have certainly put me off... but I was lucky...

During our recent panto, we had a mum decide to breast feed her baby and whipped 'em out in the front row! Fortunately breasts weren't of interest to a fair proportion of that particular cast, if you get my drift, but it certainly lifted a few eyebrows ...

Ryano's post reminded me of an orchestral concert attended by a blind chap. We thought he was snoring sororously most of the way through; turned out to be the guide dog parked under his chair.

On the stage...
1) Parents and grandparents who wave at their offspring in the middle of a performance. (We spend significant chunks of our lives helping these kids to develop an on-stage character, then their gran blows it for them.)
2) Our village idiot. This guy decided it would be amusing to squeal the air out of a baloon during a bit of quiet dialogue in our last panto. (He was wrong.)

I heard about this one from the horses mouth....

Wednesday night. Open Dress Rehearsal for a panto...

Invited were the "special needs" group with minders. Lovely people..

Everything is going well and the actors are coping with the noises etc from fton of house.

Until, Snow White singing her main number looks down to see one of the older chaps in the front row (who had escaped his minder) undoing his trousers and showing all to the world...

Needles to say she wasn't able to finish the song...

Not because of what had happened...

Because of how many minders it took to stop him doing it.

*shrug*

That's Show Biz...

Hrmmm, don't you think that's a little excessive? Aren't there circumstances where it is necessary to keep a mobile phone on? Or are you saying that no parents can come to a show and leave the babysitter at home with the kids and be completely uncontactable in an emergency?

We do keep our mobile on in theatre and cinemas but it's set to silent (ours doesn't have vibrate) and we just check it regularly to see if there has been a call.

One question though: Does anyone know whether mobiles interfere with the theatre equipment?

Whether in the theatre or cinema it is very distracting to hear mobile phones going off. If the can be set to vibrate then great. However, it is also a pain when the person in front of you checks their phone every ten minutes, the green screen being constantly waved under your nose. As long as it's done discreetly then everything is fine, the problem is those people that don't give a damn about anyone else's enjoyment. It's very difficult to get through to these people any way you try.

Five or Ten years ago you wouldn't have had mobiles anyway. Babysitters can hang on and you can call them in the interval. Half a show is rarely more than an hour and a quarter long.

If your babysitter called during a show there's nothing you can do - not even talk to them - anyway!

In New York theatres it's now an on the spot $50 fine if your mobile goes off during the show. Which is a good thing.

Marks & Spencer actually have a system set up so you can't use mobiles in their stores.

And as a director, I insist on all mobiles being switched off during rehearsals at all times. They can go outside and check their answerphones at coffee time if they're lucky enough to get a break! In fact, my auditions are being held in a church hall that's out of mobile range, so I'm safe!

That said, I am glued to my mobile and couldn't do without it, but it still gets switched off when necessary.

And mobiles going off in our theatre interfere with the PA system causing a loud buzzing noise.

Oh, and my shows are always so loud no-one would know if a mobile went off anyway!!!!

Yes I agree that if there was a real emergency you would need your mobile, but like the others said there isn't a lot you can do if it does go off, and it is very distracting.

The way I would do it is have it on vibrate and if it is a real emergency take it to the toilet to answer there. If not ignore it.

Like I said in my earlier post, we have ours on silent and just check for missed calls every 10 mins or so. If there had been a missed call I'd get out and call back. Knowing where we were, if the sitter had called during the show then it's very important and stuff the few people who might be disturbed as I leave, this is my kids we're talking about.

I can understand Zorro's concerns (although what would you have done before mobiles, Zorro??), but in my experience it isn't the people who have genuine concerns who leave their mobiles on during a performance. It tends to be the people who think they are more important than anyone else.

At our main February show, a mobile went off in the middle of a very poignant scene set in World War One where a soldier was about to be executed for desertion. This was distracting enough for the rest of the paying audience, let alone the cast, but not only did that person make the decision not to turn it off or leave (if it was something that really needed to be dealt with), but LET IT RING AGAIN!

Needless to say the member in question has been ridiculed thoroughly on our own discussion board ...

Yes I must say I agree with that, people who have their mobiles on in case of genuine emergancy and do it descreetly I have no problem with. People who just can't be bothered to turn them off I do have problems with.

Though must confess I nearly forgot to turn my mobile off at this years panto, I don't use it enoughto remember, luckily my friend reminded me.

Hrm. Reluctant as I am to labour the point, and while I'd definitely agree we should avoid disturbing performances or audience enjoyment with ringing mobile phones ...

... in the days before mobiles existed people used to leave their doors unlocked when they went out (in towns rather than cities), sometimes leave children at home (or in cars) unsupervised, spanking children for being bad (and sometimes worse than spanking) was allowed or at least overlooked. Child minders didn't have to be registered (and all the woes that came from that!!).

I'm not sure the "good old days" are a good reason why I should be uncontactable while my child is being looked after by a complete stranger when all sorts of emergencies could occur i.e. just one example ... children below the age of about 7 can't regulate their own temperature properly and can overheat causing them to fit uncontrolably.

It should be for emergency purposes only and you should endeavour to minimise the distrurbance if you can (silent or vibrate setting etc).

You really don't strike me as the type of person who disturbs an audience unless it was a real emergency, Zorro! Hey, if it's on silent/vibrate, it shouldn't disturb anybody. We have people coming to our theatre who can't seem to manage getting through half an hour without a cigarette for goodness' sake!

Its not just the fact of a mobile going off during the show thats distracting, but the groans from their fellow audience members that is off putting. We do ask people to put them on silent or off if they dont have that facility. You can be contacted by other means if the caller knows where you are and its an emergency. Dont forget text messages too which are probably mostly jokes!

During rehearsals, we ask the same as in this day and age, the mobile seems to be a priority and you rush to answer it, regardless of what you are doing. We ALL do it but its still irritating for others.

Mobiles ARE a Godsend especially if you are alone in a car or away from your children, but should be used responsibly.

But what about chatting? Our hall has a double sided bar and we once had someone who was on the club side of the bar and felt he had to shout to be heard over one of our musical numbers, but we could all hear him! Thats just plain rude!

Now THERE is an annoying habit. Thank goodness theatres now have no smoking policies.

I'm not a regular theatre goer but I've been fortunate to not be disturbed during a performance ... except when the jolly green giant sits in frfont of you with very big hair

How about other cast members? Don't you find they put you off during performances? Being so close to Amdram I here some fantastic stories about what they get up to, and more than one has included subtle nudity

Believe me, it's very sad. I speak as a smoker, for goodness' sake, and I can manage a whole first act which is, let's face it, an hour and a half an absolute most, without a cigarette. I can go and see a 3-hour movie! And we have a very strict "bar only" smoking policy but that just seems to make some (and I'm talking about a very small minority here) have to leave half an hour into the play.

Although, having said that, there has been a comment on our own discussion board recently that someone SNORING through the whole play on Saturday night was much MUCH more irritating than a mobile, or someone getting up to leave!

Guilty as charged m'lady. My honeymoon was spent in Rome and we went to the Opera Theatre which was a magnificent building. I admired it all the way to the start of the first act. It's not that Fidelio was boring, nay, let not me be accused of that. I had read the programme and seen that it was a rivetting story. However, it may have had something to do with the performance being in Italian with German subtitles that my gentle snoring provided a humourous undertone to the proceedings, perhaps the worst of which was each time Liz poked me to wake up and I snorted like a pig to the surrounding audience's disgust. <_<

In some of our private shows for the elderly, we've had many an audience member asleep but fortunately no snoring!
I remember another show quite a few years ago when a lady seemed to take a fancy to one of our men and sat in the front row, legs akimbo! He was in a sweat all the way through!

Something else that does my head in is not an audience thing but a rehearsal thing. When it gets to the point where you are supposed to be off book we have someone who acts as prompt. Now it happens that most people when they forget will say "prompt". However what gets me is the over zealous prompter. You pause for 5 seconds and they say your line for you. No big deal really but when you are trying to act and you've built up a scene the last thing you want is to have it shattered by someone who disagrees with your timing.

That sounds precious doesn't it!

Oh, never mind dahlings!

Or at the opposite end of the scale when people don't know how to take a prompt properly. I always fine people for saying "sorry" when they should have said "line"!!

We could start a whole new topic, "What pus a director off" and that would be included. The amount of times people get lost in a passage, stop, say sorry then try to carry on. If it's just prior to opening, you tell them that they can't do that on stage so get used to it, blast through it, if it's wrong it's wrong but get it wrong confidently and the audience won't know. Sheesh, actors eh! You can't live with them, you can't bury them under the patio!

Things that have put me off include ...

Andy our sound man .. trying to make us laugh whilst on stage!!

All of the FOH people swaying their arms at the back of the hall during our more lively songs... I was concentrating so much once that I didn't realise they were swaying the wrong way to us... and was out of time with the people on stage!

(As you can see our performances are a lot more laid back than the norm!!!!

I'm not easily thrown but I have to admit to being a little perturbed in the middle of Les Liaisons Dangereuses when the chap playing Valmont decided to leave the stage suddenly, leaving me with no dialogue to say and no action. The only thing I could do was seduce the poor young lad playing Danceny ... hehehe......

Thanks, Helen. That really gets up my nose too - so I shall follow your prescription in my next production.

Other things that put me off include
- stagecrew singing along without knowing the words
- front-of-house staff hissing the villain in something that isn't panto or melodrama

Does anyone else here do last night tricks on other members of the cast, they can sometimes throw you

I may be a bit of a party pooper but I hate the last night trick tradition especially on short runs. Basically because I feel you have to give everyone in the audience the best show possible and that can be difficult if people are expecting to find strange things in strange places. People who pay on the last night deserve the same for their money as every other audience. It's not bad for a long West End run where the audience are expecting high jinx but being a miserable dictatorial director, I'd not be happy if it happened to the detrement of the show.

Got my directors hat on here.

I agree with you Ryano..

We had one member though that would always do something 'dodgy' on the last night of our pantos - the thing is all of his friends and family were there so it always got a laugh.. I did feel sorry for the other audience members sometimes though!!!

Little things that will still amuse the audience are fine, especially in panto. Like this year the two characters doing the raffel borrowed the villains hat and didn't tell him, leading to a shower of raffle tickets when he took it off later. Though wilst doing the raffle they pointed out (in character) that they'd borrowed his hat, so it didn't really spoil it. Though for me, being thesad person that I am, this was not my first performance, I never miss the last night panto with that group, and have to go at least once before that. Though with panto its different every night

Last night tricks? Blurgh! Hate 'em! I remember as a novice performer - in my first principal part - opening a suitcase to pack stuff to find a poster with a smiley face and the words "Hallo Maureen!" on it. Pretty innocuous you might think? No. It put me off so much so that I forgot the words of the song I was singing and ended up stumbling through the last verse and chorus. Not funny for me or the audience. And because I was a nice person, I didn't rat when the director asked me what had gone wrong....

I think there's a time and a place. Panto would seem to be much easier to "get away" with pranks or high jinks. In a Greek tragedy for instance (guess what I'm rehearsing!), if someone pulled a prank on me whilst playing a pretty taxing role, they might well regret it!

We have done stuff AFTER the last performance - cast rewriting Comedy of Errors in a "skinhead" version lasting 3 minutes, stage crew rewriting Cabaret along with dance routine, et al, usually as a little thank you to the director ...

I must confess I've never seen it done in anything but panto, and there are things that should not be done.

I never meant to start a full out debate, it's just someone was talking to me about it a few minutes ago and I wondered what you lot thought, I'm also with Helen, theres a time and a place

Well you've gone and done it now! We'll be here debating all night now, as if we haven't got anything better to do.

It is a good subject though AND on topic!

You can have some fun (the limit being when it starts to impact the quality of a production). Playing a policeman, I had to show a warrant card to one of the other characters. During rehearsals (though not in production) there was something different written on the card ever night.

In another production (actually during the run) a policeman had to draw a chalk line around the corpse. (I was playing the front end of the corpse.) The chalk was passed from one policeman to another, and "the chalk" was something different every night (including a small stick of salami and a flump).

disallowed word it I'll leap in here with the big 500

Okay mobiles..... worse than one in the audience going off - one on the crew!! The said member was dragged outside and given a good kicking (nearly litterally)

Last night trick - yep been there done that. I'm inclined to agree that if your going to do it at all then panto if we are going to do anything we ALWAYS ask the director

For musicals we dance in the wings - drama is different - (we're all in the bar or crew room until called

Speaking of which here's a hate (sorry) actors that stand in the wings watching and getting in the way light years before their call - or worse still actors who don't come down at the beginners call or make themselves known to the crew - so the show has to be held for them

They're not actors Martin, they're Prima Donnas. I know people (not many) that believe they can roll up 5 minutes before they are due on (even if it's 20 minutes into the play) and then have the audacity to say "that's how I work". *strangle* "that's how I work" says the stage manager!

and even worse - In my opinion - is isn't on stage in time for their cue - cos there too busy talking.. doesn't happen anymore with us but used too!!!

That is really annoying. I really have very little patience with people who can't be bothered to show up on time.

Martin - Even as a luvvy myself I have to agree with the actor-in-the-wings thing as being really unprofessional. And yes, I know we none of us ARE professional but that doesn't mean we have to behave like amateurs. It's rude rude rude!

Mind you, I was slightly late for a cue myself once. I was doing 'Diary of Anne Frank' and playing Jan Dusal (the nasty, selfish one) and I wasn't due on for about 20 minutes into the show. I passed my time watching Italy v France in Euro96. As I was engrossed in the penalty shoot-out, I suddenly heard a line that sound tragically familiar. I had to button up my waist coat, put on my jacket, doctor's coat, overcoat, grab my had and two holdalls then clamber through a small passgae and onto stage. I made it about 15 seconds late, which was quite a while according to those on stage. However, the director said it was a very good entrance other than being slightly late, it looked as if I was really being chased by the Nazis. I just thanked him and left it at that. <_<

I actually missed out a scene completely - fortunately in dress rehearsal, not performance! I went off after one scene and completely forget the next scene and got changed into the costume for the scene after that. In the scene I missed I was supposed to be playing an old lady knitting in the crowd and in the scene I was changing for I was in a ballgown so couldn't even come on once I'd started to change. But the director never said a thing....

Heres an amusing one, my sisters a dancer, and was in a panto wa few years ago where the final song was Reach by S Club 7. This was also about the only song in it where they hadn't changed the words.

Suddenly she hears someone singing reach and thinks Oh No I've missed my cue and rushes up there, only to realise that someone backstage had left the radio on!!!

Loaded the scenery elevator (at a large nameless venue) with the wrong set. It was a huge set too and I was one of a team - it was during final rehearsals with an invited audience. Someone started and we followed like sheep (not thinking)

The elevator went up the set wasn't even close to being the right one - we had a 30 minute stop while we reset.

The B****king we got lasted almost as long but felt longer...

Ps sorry it's a tech type post but hey you can laugh

Does this include what puts people off during play readings and rehearsals?


If so, please add my two pennies worth...

*the usual...talking in the background when it's not your scene

*people missing cues (invariably, the people who have smallest roles)

*the same person missing the same cues each week

*prompt jumping in too quickly (been guilty there but I was doing my job honest) without realising a longer "artistic" pause was being taken.

*eating a bag of crisps really loudly so you can't hear what's going on and lose your place on the script.

Mmmm I think that's my moan over....


L

...and when you ask them to be quiet, they look at you as if you are being rude!

Actors, aaarrrrrhhhhhh!

Also during rehearsals.... waiting for ALL the chorus to realise they're on - y'know, having to drag some of them from the various different rooms around the building where they are allegedly rehearsing but in reality chatting.