Today's matinee was our best performance yet. The transitions were snappy, there were no major mishaps, Mr. Love Interest and I rocked our dance, and the audience was engaged. The audience was also huge - there were very few empty seats. Here's hoping we sell out next weekend! I just hope everyone who saw it this weekend tells their friends how much fun they had singing, dancing, and waving their arms in the air.
I love our audiences. They're all energetic and wonderful and stuff. But here's the most annoying thing they do: leave before the show is over. I mean, it's a big room, but not so big that we can't see people halfway back stand up and walk down the aisles. We're real live people, not a TV show. I understand people who leave to go the bathroom or to take fussy kids into the lobby, but when they get up and put their coats on before the last song, we know they're just trying to get to the car faster. And that stinks. (Fortunately, very few people do this.)
The second most annoying thing audience members do is wear blinking jewelry. Okay, that's actually almost funny. At the beginning of today's show, some woman was wearing a brooch that blinked red...green...red...green...it was kind of hypnotic. I was ready to send an usher to make her shut it off, but it was gone by the next time I looked in her direction. At least no one has taken flash pictures this year - last year there was someone right near the front at one show who *kept* doing it. So distracting!
3 comments:
Having now done a lot of standing in front of an audience, I've realized how hilarious it is that people think that you can't see what they're doing! I feel like on the last day of class I should be like "Hey, it's been nice watching you sleep!" or "What's the best conversation you've had this semester, chatty girls?" I wonder if audiences were like that before TV...
Oh god no kidding. The best one I've ever experienced was last summer at one of the shows for the theater company where I'm on the board. One of the ushers fell asleep in the front row...and started snoring. LOUD. The stage manager had to go over, wake him up and get him out of the house.
Until then the cast had been walking extra close while in character and trying to improv ways to wake him up. Clapping, random emphazes on different words.
Hysterical...in retrospect.
I went to an Alanis Morriset performance last week (yes, you read right) and both annoying things happened: there were an OBSCENE number of people wearing blinking pins (annoying!) and many folks left before the end of the performance. Believe it or not, I was one of the latter. But that was only because she started singing Ironic. I felt my departure was justified. In other annoying news, MANY MANY MANY people were taking pics on their cell phones, causing everyone behind them to be distracted by their screens. TOTALLY annoying, especially the folks who took snaps every 2 seconds through the entire show. Yick.
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