Actor stopped because of emailer in audience

[ChangeNameLikeIChangeSocks]

I just read about this in the guardian, I'll put a picture of the heading of the article.

He says he "thought" the audience member was sending emails on his laptop. I wonder how he knew that, presumably he couldn't see the screen, and signal in theatres is dreadful. I would take a punt that he was in fact playing minesweeper.

I'm going off topic. The reason I wanted to post this is because it leapt out as me as a parallel to typical behaviour in many of the (Good!) schools I've taught in. Low level disruption. Except it's not one audience (class) member, it's most of them.

So I had to smile wryly to myself that this made the national news.

Either the audience member had very good reason, or this is a natural follow on from the deterioration of respect and good behaviour in schools.

Oh actors, come teach the dear children!

To begin with he was being woken up multiple times per night which is obviously not sustainable. So he delegated to the two captains in full. Anything he had the authority to do, they had the authority to do in his absence (as an Admiral he was senior enough to make these sort of decisions within his own Task Force). The sort of decisions that they couldn't have taken were the ones he would have needed approval from above for anyway (sinking the Belgrano for example).

Thanks for clarifying @DdraigGoch thats interesting (genuinely).

and not disimilar to what a number of posters on this thread have send about their own working lives. They delegate the bulk, but there are occasions when their bosses would expect their input and on those occasions they are expected to be contactable.

anyway I realise this has been a detraction from the discussion about using a laptop in a theatre (which is terrible behaviour) so I won’t belabour the point but it is interesting to witness the venom directed at working women who dare to make decisions about prioritisation and what is important/appropriate within their environment. I wonder whether the Admiral was subjected to such opprobrium?

Because the only way his second-in-command will ever learn to deal with emergencies is by being trusted to deal with emergencies - and the second officer wouldn't be in post if they couldn't do the job.

It's not like the good old days where your father could buy you a commission. People (except the Royals - and they are kept well away from action) gain positions on merit in the forces these days. "Knowing someone" might give you opportunities, but in a conflict situation people need to be able to actually "do", not just have friends at the top.

A first officer who is exhausted is more likely to make a wrong decision than a lower officer who is fully rested.

I went to see Marc Almond in the last few years and he stopped his show and told someone using their phone to put it away or leave.

Actors DO learn how to focus.

They spent time before a performance getting into character, during which time no-one interrupts them unless it is an emergency. They get themselves mentally in place and inhabit their role. It requires a lot of self-disciple - particularly as there is always a lot going on backstage, and also many outstanding actors suffer from terrible stage fright. It is this pre-performance adrenaline that gives them their edge. They learn to use it rather than let it paralyse them.

When onstage they work to keep that focus and to deliver their performance to the best of their ability while also being alert for other things happening that may require them to modify their performance (eg another cast member forgetting their line, or being suddenly unwell - rare, but it happens).

Anything distracting in the audience can destroy this. It doesn't have to be a big thing - just imagine if you were trying to concentrate and a mosquito was buzzing around you constantly - you couldn't.

And as for 'I have attended many a show" - how does that qualify you to comment?

I have observed a number of complex surgeries - I couldn't carry one out. To say that because you've watched something being done, you know how to do it better than the expert, is absolute nonsense!

'Anything distracting in the audience can destroy this'

Yes. I understand this. Perhaps someone heckling in the audience, perhaps props collapsing would understandably spoil the focus. My point is a silent screen, while rude, should not have been a massive distraction. I think he stropped more because the person wasn't paying attention to his emotive and very intense lines.

Let aisle staff check on viewers and just get on with it

He didn't "strop". And of course a large screen like a laptop, plus associated typing noise is disruptive to the performers. The screen light alone is going to be a distraction.

Because the only way his second-in-command will ever learn to deal with emergencies is by being trusted to deal with emergencies

We’re talking about different things.

I’m not being contacted “out of hours” because my team are incapable of making a decision in an emergency any more than the admiral is being woken up because his deputy cannot.

I am being contacted because, in the event of an event that materially affects the company for which I work it needs to be able to satisfy shareholders that all appropriate steps were taken and then to fire someone if things go horribly wrong. In some circumstances that someone will be me 🤷‍♀️

They need to be able to ring fence accountability, get rid of the scapegoat and move on.

I'm awestruck at the importance of some people that business critical incidents keep happening in the few hours a year they're tied up in a training day. 😅

Oh FFS. People have explained to you that in some workplaces training days are considered working days and work still has to be done. It doesn't even have to be 'business critical', just normal work that nobody else is covering.

I've never worked anywhere that they're not considered work days. You're getting paid to be there, often your company has paid for you to be there, this is probably the most expensive work time of your working life. I don't know why I'm surprised that there are companies that are this badly run, I'm just surprised to see people championing it as a concept

Training days are certainly work days, if they're courses worth doing then the work you should be engaged with is the training.

The work I should be engaged with is whatever my boss wants me to do because that's how I make my living.

Really strange behaviour but is it a consequence of having a culture where we are expected to be reachable by employers all the time. Possibly an urgent email came through to the woman and she was worried about the consequences of not responding and not wanting to make people move from their seats so used her laptop seated.

Maybe her conscience made her a coward having to answer the email but under work pressure can anyone say they haven't felt the same obligation?

It's just plain rude and insensitive - both to the actor and the people in the theatre with them. And I have worked in the theatre as a singer and actress and I can tell you that it would be incredibly distracting.

I can possibly entertain some of this could have been the case had it been a phone. But a laptop?! What was it doing there?

If people’s lives depend on you being accessible by email then you shouldn’t be in the theatre while on call.

If people’s lives aren’t in the balance then you are obliged by manners and decency not to use any technology during a performance. If you can’t manage that because you’re too anxious about the consequences of not being immediately available then you can’t go to the theatre, and you need to access therapy and / or a new job to deal with your work life balance issues.

The solution is never ‘it’s ok for me to ruin this for everyone else in this theatre because the only thing that matters is me answering this email’.

@HobbitLass

I am not trying to condone the behaviour but I do wonder about the mindset that makes people feel it acceptable. Possibly the typer had gone something similar previously and not been called out? Possibly she was with someone who was into the play and she decided to work while they watched? Are we so used to devices in any public space we don't see any distinction with a theatre? Tis strange

@HobbitLass

'The solution is never ‘it’s ok for me to ruin this for everyone else in this theatre because the only thing that matters is me answering this email’.

Quite right.

Point of detail but it was a he not a she. Iirc female companion got him to shut it - I expect she was mortified by his behaviour.

I do wonder about the mindset that makes people feel it acceptable

I'm not sure they do, I suspect people using devices in inappropriate settings who are some combination of egocentric, inconsiderate and lacking in social awareness.

I belong to a community choir where one (new) member sits tapping out messages on his phone for a large part of the session. So the rest of his voice group are standing up singing and he continues to sit down and tap away. I find it really odd and irritating behaviour.