To the person whose cell phone was ringing during the performance of Doubt at Neptune Theatre: common courtesy wasn’t enough to inspire you to turn your phone off before the play started, neither was the polite request made just before the curtain went up to turn all cell phones off. Not even your cell phone ringing during the show was enough to get you to turn it off, so we were all “treated” to an encore. Your ignorance knows no bounds. It didn’t stop with yourself or with those around you, but extended right up onto the stage where it was directed at the cast and crew in the production. It just shows that art is for everyone – any idiot with 25 bucks is free to go to the theatre and ruin the experience for everyone else. But to call you an idiot is an insult to idiots.
— no doubts
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2009.
Yeah that’s annoying, especially for those poor performers.
They should have stopped the play, have an usher get the phone and take it up to the stage then have the cast dance on it.
Where’s Patti LuPone when you need her?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUzYBZ8AlxY
Dear Lord.
As a person with no cell, I feel a secret and shameful smugness when I see one of these forgetful or just plain lazy people in a class or other setting in which cell phones are inappropriate, scrambling to find their ringing cell in their giant bag of items, getting more red faced by the second as everyone else rolls their eyes. Am I a bad person????
No Mole Rat, you’re not. I DO have a cell, but I’m gracious enough to put it on silent when in a public setting so as to not disrupt others. Actully, I feel the same way when I see people doing that.
Yay
I doing a show back in December and one lady became so disruptive that one of the actors stopped the show, pointed her out, and asked the crowd if they had paid $40 to see a performance or to listen to this ‘drunk mutant’ (i think those were his words)… It got a standing ovation and the performance went on uninterrupted.
That’s hilarious, Anton. Personally, they should escort cell phone ringers out of the theatre on the second offense. Once might be an accident, twice is just plain fucking rude. Haven’t these twits hear of vibrate?
When I started university hardly anyone had cell phones….now? You can’t even write a fucking exam without someone’s fucking cell phone ringing.
Today in my mid term some asshat’s phone rang and they didn’t bother to turn it off because it rang again! They had it on low, but we could all still fucking hear it. Asshole.
During the dramatic courtroom scene of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ at Neptune a couple of years ago, someone’s cell phone went off, and the ringtone was ‘Sweet child o mine’ by Guns n Roses. That was classy
I really haven’t run into issue with a cell ringing in places that they shouldn’t be… However, people with crackberries typing away really fucking bother me. It’s usually people who don’t need them (i.e.: teenage girls/university socialites) who end up using them to text/check facebook through a movie, or through a play. I kicked a girl’s seat through a movie a couple of weeks ago, because she was doing nothing but that for 2 hours.
Fever, so long as it’s not a work-berry then please keep on keeping on.
I’m sure I’ve been mistaken for one of those “student with a berry who doesn’t need it” types but it’s actually for work…
but even they have a vibrate setting that would please TTFN in new and exciting ways.
The worst part of texting in theatres is that the screens glow so bright that it lights up the whole section the person is sitting in. If you’re sitting near and behind the person, you can’t help but look at it as you’re trying to enjoy the movie, they think they’re being quiet and discreet, but definitely not.
For work or fun doesn’t matter, if you’re in a theatre, turn it off.
well yes, I agree it should be turned off in theaters (both live and movie).
zzz– I’m in the same boat, I’ve got a work-berry, and I hate the bloody thing as it vibrates every two bloody minutes for every work related email (i.e.: market updates sent every half hour) that goes through. I still put on silence when in a place it’s inappropriate to use it.
Someone please tell me why every teenager/early 20s twit absolutely NEEDS a crackberry? Maybe someone can enlighten me, but when it comes right down to it, does ANYONE need a crackberry for non-professional work-related purposes?
It’s the fact that they’re so easy for texting.
I really don’t understand how anyone could be so completely inconsiderate as to not turn off that goddamn phone AFTER the announcement reminding everyone to do so. What a douchebag – the person actually left the theatre to take their SUPER IMPORTANT call.
And for the record, phones on vibrate are still loud and distracting in a quiet theatre. Please, please put your phone on SILENT. The same goes for texting – believe me, we see you from the stage, Asshole Audience Member. Everyone can see you. We can’t HELP but see you. Thank you for ruining it for everybody.
Hopefully it won’t be long before theatres have installed cell signal blockers & no one’s phone will work during a performance. I would prefer to have the ushers simply remove the offending jerk. That goes for those who can’t shut up during the performance as well.
pretty sure cell-phone blockers are illegal… and kind of immoral too.
Yeah, Cell blockers are illegal at this point, sadly. The argument was made that they could be used to call 911 if the need be. I’d fully support it in the movie theatres, only because it would stop stupid ass kids fucking with my movie.