Audience Behaviour

[LinMM]

Hope it wasn't me!! Not exactly swaying but there are some big well known pas de deux where I can feel myself starting to go through some bits of the movement maybe from shoulders up!! I can't help myself but do stop once I'm aware I'm doing it!! Wasn't at Don Q though this time though!!

 

 

Seriously though some bits of ballet music I can just about contain myself.

 

It's worse if standing as the feet definitely start twitching too!

[zxDaveM]

Seriously though some bits of ballet music I can just about contain myself.

 

It's worse if standing as the feet definitely start twitching too!

 

They'll have to add to the pre-performance announcement - "no tap dancing"

[LinMM]

Well I was standing for Taming of the Shrew the other night and some of the Shostakovich music was so irresistible! Might have done the odd Russian bounce....but luckily nobody behind me!

[Don Q Fan]

Wear sneakers;-)

[LinMM]

Was wearing my trusty Skechers ....seldom off my feet unless in ballet shoes!!!

[LinMM]

Could start a sort of standing room wave/bounce in time to the music!

 

I'm sure I only had two pints last night!

[Timmie]

All audiences at my five Bolshoi's have been exemplary* (there was always someone trying to do some extraneous clapping but I can live with that).

 

*Only as judged from my location of course (still thinking of poor MouseM40).

[Coated]

Seat snatcher lady was at it again tonight. The next time she adds her unticketed rump to the standing spaces and pretends to not understand when you ask her to go to wherever she booked a ticket for, I will get an usher to remove her.

 

It was amusing seeing her trying her luck in the orchestra stalls after the intermission, just to get booted out by the seat owner last minute. Realising that she'd now be attempting to head back to delight standees with her unrequested company, I did go to the usher to ask whether they could check if there if there are surplus standees before the doors close. Seat Snatcher Lady was just about to come back in when she sees me talking to the usher, does a quick double take and then legs it up the next flight of stairs. Pft. Wonder whether she snuck into the balcony or chanced the Grand Tier.

 

Turns out that 3 of the ticketed standees didn't return after the intermission and the ushers probably thought I'm bonkers moaning about overcrowding. I did wonder whether the leavers thought it was too crammed and ran for the hills, or did they really hate the Smirnova/Chudin SL?

 

And seeing that the last time I've encountered SSL was at an RB show, this one can't be accredited to Bolshoi audience....

[cavycapers]

Monday night's audience was amazingly good; never heard (or rather didn't hear!) such a quiet and well behaved audience, no chat, no phones, no munching or drinking or coughing or handbag riffling, a joy. Just rapt attention. First time it's ever been like that for me, and it all added to the gloriousness of the evening.

 

Aaw, seat snatcher lady sounds like a bad lady - she must be stopped. A little shove from the top of the amphi steps should do it

Edited August 10, 2016 by cavycapers

[Coated]

This is War. I'm done playing nice.

 

There were 3 empty seats in SC row A, so a swarm of chancers appeared in SC after the intermission, sniffing for seats. Either the ticket holders had arrived, or other chancers had already laid claim to the seats, so the remaining chancers eyed up what they regarded as empty enough looking space in the standing section. I was somewhat surprised when I all of a sudden had two people standing behind me, with the third getting ready to wedge herself between the two places separated by the 'empty' pillar space.

 

I asked her where her seat is and told her that the space she was trying to stand it is not a standing place. She gave me a sickly smile and thanked me for trying to be helpful. Grah! I snapped at her that I'm not being helpful and that it's bloody annoying to have people just showing up. Lights were just going down at that point, she makes a snap decision and rushes off to an empty seat mid-row, the other two inch away and delight other standees with their presence. I guess that was a bit of an result, but I'm not sure that other standees shared that impression. On the other hand no one ever seems to say anything, so perhaps they love having someone stand behind them.

 

At this point I was so riled that the family with preteens that had talked (not whispered, oh no, not them) all through the first half received an almighty shush when they piped up again. I don't normally shush children, even if they are really pushing it, but those really were a bit special with the whole family nattering away. Surprisingly they discovered all of a sudden that they can whisper.

 

I told FOH about the sneaky sneaks after the performance and mentioned that it would be lovely if ushers could check just how many people are squishing themselves into bits of row D 90 seconds before curtains...

 

Either way, from now on I will tell sneaky chancers that if someone sold them an imaginary ticket for D36.5 or D38b, they'd been cheated by touts and need to sort it out with a nice usher....or I'll lose me temper and you might hear someone yelling USHER in utter exasperation 30 seconds before lights go down.

 

Oh, look, I'm done ranting now. I suspect this is the revenge for having had good audience behaviour for the first 2 weeks...

Edited August 10, 2016 by Coated

[Mousem40]

I didn't discuss him with an usher because he spent the whole interval talking to the nearest usher! So I thought he'd have noticed him already.

 

I have to thank Capybara for coming to my assistance and discussing 'him' with the House Manager. Maybe they'll be able to do something as apparently he is notorious. I wouldn't want him ruining anyone else's night.

[zxDaveM]

sneakt sneaks - when they appear behind/around me, I stand to full height, expand chest, use spread arms to rest on the bar (rather than tucked in elbows) and that usually discourages them...

[nycitybird]

Shocking bit of audience behaviour at Corsaire last night in the balcony. A man in row B was livid at the person in front of him in row A, who apparently was leaning forward and obstructing his view. I get that it would be annoying but Row B man was so aggressive to row A, cursing and raising his voice. The person next to him, who was with someone in a wheelchair space, tried to shush him and he went off on her too saying she paid nothing for her seat and he'd paid a fortune. Luckily the angry man didn't return after the first act.

[nickwellings]

I heard an angry man during Act I say "TURN IT OFF!" just when Scene II was starting. Maybe someone was checking their phone? It was so loud I heard it in Upper slips! I have felt like saying similar in similar situations, but never shouted at someone!

[alison]

I've heard that in the amphi a few times before now.

[bridiem]

Someone once shouted 'STOP COUGHING!!' when there had been a series of loud coughs from a row in the Amphi. And guess what? The coughing stopped.

[FLOSS]

One of the problems with the summer visits by the Bolshoi and Mariinsky ,but the Bolshoi in particular, is that many of the "regulars" disappear and far more people who have no idea how to behave in a theatre appear to replace them. It's one of the pleasures of ballet going in London during the summer.

[alison]

Someone once shouted 'STOP COUGHING!!' when there had been a series of loud coughs from a row in the Amphi. And guess what? The coughing stopped.

There are some coughs you do almost involuntarily (especially when you realise it's a quiet part of the score), some you do because someone else sets you off, and some because you absolutely can't help it (usually my problem, when something irritating has just found a place in my throat) - I'd guess this must have been one of the first two

[FLOSS]

Strangely you get next to no coughing during the performance of Wagner operas. Now that could be because Wagnerites are far healthier than the rest of the population but it could be that they are more engaged by what they are hearing and seeing than other theatre audiences.You rarely get persistent coughing, or coughing that travels round the auditorium during performances of Shakespeare plays either.You get coughing at opera performances,particularly during the more popular Italian operas,and at concerts,generally during the quietest orchestral passages, but not on the same scale that you do at the ballet  Do balletomanes have weaker chests than the rest of the theatre going population or is this proof positive of the old accusation that ballet goers are not interested in music ?

 

I'm afraid I don't buy into the idea that there is nothing that you can do to suppress a cough.I think that coughing in the theatre has far more to do with the individual audience member's level of concentration and engagement in the performance they are attending than anything else.How else do you explain the "barking seal phenomenum"  where one person coughs and the cough ripples round the auditorium? As John Barrymore said, when delivering his final lines at the end of a performance of Hamlet  "The rest is silence except for the barking seals out there".

Edited August 13, 2016 by FLOSS

[bridiem]

I agree with you, FLOSS. Occasionally a cough simply cannot be stopped, but it can almost always be muffled so that at least it doesn't echo round the auditorium. (I nearly suffocated once at the ROH in my effort to suppress a coughing fit. I ended up with tears pouring down my face. But it was worth it because very few people will have been disturbed.) I was at the Royal Albert Hall once when Sir Thomas Allen was singing unaccompanied, and the absolute cacophony of coughing that went on completely ruined the performance; it was totally ridiculous, like a competition to see how many people could cough as loudly as possible.

Edited August 13, 2016 by bridiem

[Jan McNulty]

I was at a play with a friend a couple of years ago.  She was recovering from a bad chest infection but had felt well enough to come.  Not long before the interval, I thought I was going to have to seek help because she suddenly sort of erupted into coughing and then slumped into her seat.  She had spent most of the first half (unknown to me) trying to suppress a cough with ultimately near disastrous consequences.  We had to leave at the interval.

 

Last year when BRB were in Nottingham something caught in my throat and I had the most awful coughing fit.  I was stuck in the middle of the front row and was dreadfully embarrassed.  Fortunately a drink of water at the interval got me through the rest of the performance.  I had no prior warning, wasn't munching sweeties etc.

 

I have found that haze effects can catch in my throat and cause me to cough.

 

I'm not saying that some coughs can be suppressed but just that some can't.

[taxi4ballet]

I have found that haze effects can catch in my throat and cause me to cough.

Oh yes, the 'dry ice' effect!

[VickyPage]

Strangely you get next to no coughing during the performance of Wagner operas. Now that could be because Wagnerites are far healthier than the rest of the population but it could be that they are more engaged by what they are hearing and seeing than other theatre audiences.

 

That's really interesting, Floss, because in my personal experience, people cough a lot at Wagner operas. Maybe you've had much nicer audiences for Wagner, in which case, I'm jealous, but, due to my Wagner-crazed family, I've been to quite a few Wagner operas around the world (I think maybe the Vienna Staatsoper audience for Parsifal is the best I've had in terms of coughing, but there was still a lot of talking) and we also have over a hundred recordings of his operas (many of which are from live performances, rather than the studio), and there's normally a lot of coughing, echoing around the auditorium. I think people believe it's all right to cough during the prelude (not sure if this is the case for other opera in the overture), so the performance tends to open with a bored audience coughing their way through the vorspiel. The philosophy seems to be: if there aren't people singing, it's all right to cough. 

Edited August 13, 2016 by VickyPage

[LinMM]

I had a really scary experience last week on a dance course.

It was the lunch break and one of the dancers had just given herself a good spray with a deodorant before dashing off to grab a bite to eat.

The class had only just finished so I was a bit puffed still but not excessively. Anyway I felt an initial tickle in my throat after this spray and then a bit of a cough and I drank some water left over from the class however I couldn't stop this cough and then my whole thrall seized up and I couldn't take a breath in!

Luckily one of the dancers there (whose son suffers from asthma) noticed I was in difficulties and took me outside the room and sort of helped me to breathe again!

I've never experienced anything like this before and hope I'm not developing asthma at my age but I think it was an allergic reaction to this spray.

I'm saying all,this because it could happen in a theatre ....people surprisingly do spray perfume around copiously on occasions not always in the cloakroom!!

So occasionally things in the atmosphere might set you off even when you havent got a bad cold/cough etc

I don't happen to think that on the whole most people cough for pleasure or competition and for most when it does happen it's very irritating and annoying and sometimes embarrassing.

[Geoff]

Strangely you get next to no coughing during the performance of Wagner operas. Now that could be because Wagnerites are far healthier than the rest of the population

That may be true but Wagner audiences can present other problems. Wagner seems to bring out crazy people you don't see at the ballet, chamber music or even other operas, and they can be quite challenging to sit with (odd behaviour, props, body odour, I could go on).

 

In case this sounds like I have just been unlucky, the phenomenon of Wagner = weird was openly discussed when I worked at the ROH back in the 1980s. For the avoidance of doubt, as lawyers say, I write as a committed fan of Parsifal, the Ring and some of the others.

[Scheherezade]

I suffer from severe asthma and in addition to inhalers use airways-opening pastilles pretty much non-stop throughout every performance. Even so, coughing is sometimes unavoidable. The onset of the aircon is always a problem, even though I try to cover up the vents beneath my seat with my bag, and since I invariably notice other sufferers coughing at precisely the same time this is clearly a major culprit. Similarly, some of the special effects used during performances. Like other sufferers, I will do anything in my efforts to suppress my cough but I would take issue with anyone who suggests that coughing can always be suppressed. Sometimes it just can't. 

[alison]

Oh, are you saying it may be the ROH air cooling system which may be behind it?  That would certainly explain the "out of nowhere" aspect.

[Scheherezade]

Oh, are you saying it may be the ROH air cooling system which may be behind it?  That would certainly explain the "out of nowhere" aspect.

 

I think it is. The same thing happens at the Wigmore (although I think theirs comes from the ceiling). At the Conway Hall and other places that avoid the use of aircon, I seldom feel the need to cough at all.

[taxi4ballet]

Whenever I go to theatre, thanks to this thread I am now paranoid that I'm going to start to cough during the quiet bits of a performance... and guess what? Just thinking about not coughing is sometimes enough to start me off!

[Don Q Fan]

I agree the air con can cause a cold draught which catches in your throat or dries your nose so much you breath in really dry air which causes those tickly coughs. A rolled up pashmina is good at muffling coughs I find.

[Bruce Wall]

I agree the air con can cause a cold draught which catches in your throat or dries your nose so much you breath in really dry air which causes those tickly coughs. A rolled up pashmina is good at muffling coughs I find.

 

Don't know if it will help, but an old performer's trick - (being ill on stage is never a funny business, especially when others are speaking) - is to gently bite your tongue (i.e., put gentle pressure on it) which creates saliva and then swallow it which - at least in my experience - (hopefully) stifles the oncoming cough.  (Just a suggestion.)  

Edited August 15, 2016 by Bruce Wall

[John Mallinson]

Don't know if it will help, but an old performer's trick - (being ill on stage is never a funny business, especially when others are speaking) - is to gently bite your tongue (i.e., put gentle pressure on it) which creates saliva and then swallow it which - at least in my experience - (hopefully) stifles the oncoming cough.  (Just a suggestion.)  

 

This calls for a controlled trial! Any coughers out there care to give feedback?

[alison]

Really *forcing* yourself to concentrate on the performance can help too, difficult though it may be when the possibility of coughing can be a distraction.