I'm a big fan of the matinee or midnight showing; I caught Money Never Sleeps (meh) on the opening weekend at midnight and there were maybe 25 people in the theatre.
Can we add people who -- despite the fact that every curtain speech asks the audience to turn off their cell phones -- not only receive cell phone calls during live theatrical performances BUT ACTUALLY ANSWER THEM??????????
No, I don't believe an actor should break character unless the building is actually on fire.
I've been on stage when audience members have acted in a disruptive manner. In one case, we had somebody who actually walked past the front of the proscenium and left the theater during the funeral scene at the end of 'Death of a Salesman' ... and then walked back a few minutes later. It was a small house, and the fucker was actually walking over Willy Loman's grave! We were all pissed, actors and audience alike. But we went on.
AFTER THE SHOW WAS OVER, I yelled up the back stairs, "Did you see that idiot...?" And I heard someone in the audience say, "You hear that? He's talking about you?" But during the show, never.
1. Nicholas Negroponte was on Colbert on Monday night, and when Colbert asked a question along the lines of who is going to do the crap work, Negroponte answered "robots". That's what I've been saying for years. Thanks for the reminder to write a post about this.
2. No advice.
3. AVOID movies on weekend evenings at all costs. If your job doesn't allow you and Alyssa to both take long lunches to see a film, then go in the middle of the week. Dealing with loud or texting people is a no-win situation. You can complain to management without geting up and missing part of the movie, and chances are good you will have to complain twice. Chances are also good the management will regard you as an annoyance, in the sense of "I don't get paid enough to deal with this." The only way I see you winning this situation is if you are large enough or scary in appearance enough to be intimidating just by asking (without actually making a threat, which would get YOU into legal trouble).
The problem with "robots" doing the drudge work is that society needs to adjust to a scenario where there is much more available labor than work. ie, capitalism won't work when there isn't any work to do.
That in no way refutes the assertion that a society if better if people are engaged in work that provides some degree of self-actualization, rather than drudge work.
The freshman girl at Duke who sat in front of us at the Saturday night show was texting constantly, and gosh, I just couldn't avoid seeing her screen. "Texting during the show" was quickly not high on my list of reasons to smack her. I'd never seen such a high drama-to-word ratio. Ugh.
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Lunch at 3:30 also works well.
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I've been on stage when audience members have acted in a disruptive manner. In one case, we had somebody who actually walked past the front of the proscenium and left the theater during the funeral scene at the end of 'Death of a Salesman' ... and then walked back a few minutes later. It was a small house, and the fucker was actually walking over Willy Loman's grave! We were all pissed, actors and audience alike. But we went on.
AFTER THE SHOW WAS OVER, I yelled up the back stairs, "Did you see that idiot...?" And I heard someone in the audience say, "You hear that? He's talking about you?" But during the show, never.
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2. No advice.
3. AVOID movies on weekend evenings at all costs. If your job doesn't allow you and Alyssa to both take long lunches to see a film, then go in the middle of the week. Dealing with loud or texting people is a no-win situation. You can complain to management without geting up and missing part of the movie, and chances are good you will have to complain twice. Chances are also good the management will regard you as an annoyance, in the sense of "I don't get paid enough to deal with this." The only way I see you winning this situation is if you are large enough or scary in appearance enough to be intimidating just by asking (without actually making a threat, which would get YOU into legal trouble).
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Yes, capitalism would need to adjust.
That in no way refutes the assertion that a society if better if people are engaged in work that provides some degree of self-actualization, rather than drudge work.
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