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!

I was lucky enough to see Andrew Scott play Hamlet live. His version of 'To be or not to be' is the best I've ever heard. And I have heard a lot! How someone could be on their laptop during it is beyond me.

Maybe he was following along reading a modern translation of the script 😂

Screen addiction has so many people in a chokehold. With all this information online now I imagine brains whirring away constantly aiming to process and keep up with it all' until they're full and just give up due to overload. Multi-tasking excessively and having long stress-inducing 'to-do' lists is another road to overload misery. Always havjng to be busy. The laptop guy now, it probably didn't even occur to him how sad it is to be unable to sit and enjoy a show without screentime/multitasking

Someone said it was bollocks that adult poor behaviour is a follow on of child poor behaviour. Where does it come from then?

I said it was bollocks.

Some people pretend pupil behaviour was amazing in the past - it is not really true, and where you did get high compliance it was in large part because of extreme violence from teachers towards pupils (very harsh corporal punishment was widespread) and the ability to expel kids for relatively minor misdemeanors. The amount of child-on-child violence that used to be tolerated was higher than it is now.

Basically, some people have always been badly behaved - there is a desire to hark back to an imaginary wonderful era but it was never there. The way bad behaviour manifests itself has varied throughout time.

IMO the devices behaviour is distinct, being something almost all age groups have developed simultaneously. The addictive nature of devices has created a new disruptive behaviour which is appearing everywhere.

I personally hate when people use devices in the theatre, but I don't think it is fundamentally different to the awful behaviour I saw in restaurants a quarter of a century ago, which was being carried out by people (customers were mostly aged between 40-70) who went to schools where they could be harshly punished.

My favourite example of historical awful behaviour that is nothing to do with a permissive school environment is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullingdon_Club
There have always been twats.

Yep. Three stars!

I was sitting young woman on her phone during a production of Hamilton.

After a few minutes I leaned over and said, ‘I’m
finding that REALLY distracting.’

She looked utterly shocked, and put it away. I really don’t think it had occurred to her that anyone else was even present. That’s the thing - people seem so unaware of others around them!

Yes there has always been poor behaviour, but the addition of phones in schools has added another headache for teachers. When I was a kid at school, I don't remember kids giving teachers the middle finger for example, though I accept that it will have happened at times. It's just that I was getting that a lot. Maybe I'm just a teacher that deserves to be sworn at, it's hard to say objectively. Neither did kids listen to football, on a portable radio in class for example, as a 90s equivalent.

We didn't have violence in the 90s, but kids who were very rude in particular were removed. As an adult in schools the emphasis has very much been on keeping students in class even when this is to the detriment of other students. I did once insist that a child was removed from my class. I had to fight all the way, but I provided all the work and she got a lot more done on her own in the the head of year's office and so did the rest of the class.

I just feel your summary of my thoughts as bollocks is a bit heavy handed.

But then your behaviour would be equally reprehensible, wouldn’t it?

The actor should have been forewarned if this.

I wonder whether some of the training events discussed on this thread really do work. Sounds to me like if people can just miss parts in the ways described, then they're some combination of not really essential or bloated.

I wonder how Andrew Scott would feel about the parallels being drawn between his performance of Hamlet and a corporate training session 😂

Hahaha! Or a school lesson!

We didn't have violence in the 90s
This is hilarious!

That is just not realistic. You must have either not seen it or forgotten it.

I went to a mix of private and state schools. All of them had violence including, in both sectors, knives.

Optional training courses are a thing, yes. Not essential, but still useful.

I did wonder if that was a typo, because no one who went to anything other than the very gentlest of schools in the 90s could possibly believe there was no violence in schools.

It might be worse now, I couldn't say. But it was definitely there in the 90s, pupil on pupil, and threatening behaviour towards teachers. And my school wasn't even that bad.

Then don’t get your phone out? I’d be really unimpressed if someone got out a phone if I were teaching/giving a course/performing. It’s ridiculously rude. If you are waiting for an urgent call, say a relative is really unwell/taken to hospital, then go outside once you’ve checked/realised you need to answer. Sitting looking at your phone during a course/lesson/lecture is, imo, very poor etiquette. It disturbs others around you, particularly during a performance in a theatre, for example.

Again, you're using hyperbolic labels to describe my experiences.

I spent seven years at two large (1000 students) state schools in Northern towns. I never saw violence in lessons.

I was pushed around plenty at break time, but I saw no knives. If you experienced that, then I'm sorry for you, but again, my experiences and opinions aren't bollocks or hilarious.

Should be but aren’t always. And even when they are, it can be a case of in one ear, out the other.

Unless there are flash lights going off in the audience or people taking phone calls, I’m tended to think actors should get on with the actual job of acting, though I appreciate it can be frustrating.

But the fact you didn't see the violence doesn't mean it didn't happen.

What makes you confident your experience is an accurate reflection of real life across society?

It is patronising of you to say you are 'sorry for me'.

I do think it is hilariously unrealistic to pretend there was no violence in schools in the 90s.

Who said 2 wrongs make a right? .

Im merely pointing out a trained performer should be able to focus and also that there are far worse distractions such as folk stuffing their faces noisily.

Perhaps I should offer my services and give him some much needed guidance. What a prat he is, a silent screen fgs.

God yes imagine. He'd need a lie down in a darkened room with smelling salts.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/feb/03/from-the-archive-its-1989-and-britains-schools-are-war-zones

No one should go to the theatre and sit on their device. End of.

It’s like going bird watching and bringing a fog horn. It spoils it for those who are trying to enjoy it.

If you are not into theatre please don’t go. and it isn’t the actors who need to get over themselves.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/school-violence-rocketing-in-90s-1524988.html

I didn't say there was none I said "we" didn't have any. My school. Sorry if that wasn't clearer.

I'm not being patronising. I really am sorry if you experienced that.

As a teacher of ten years' experience the worst violence I have seen is chair throwing. But verbal violence, yes, all the time