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Theatre etiquette tips

Being a theatre owner myself, albeit a small community theatre in the backwoods (AKA Oklahoma City) I have a few theatre etiquette tips I would like to add to the stack. These are from a slightly different point of view.
1. Appreciate audience members, no matter how annoying they are: remember it takes more ticket sales than just the snobs to keep quality theatre alive and well.Please don't chase away our audience with your "helpful" comments. If its that bad inform an usher or management, that's our job.

2. Put on a heck of a show! Maybe part of the reason our audiences seem so disinterested is that we take them for granted. We spend so much time in career development and trying to impress industry types with our skills that we forget what this all about. Wanna stop your audience from talking? Make them pay attention by lighting up the stage with more than $6000 a pop intelligent lighting, how about some intelligent acting for a change?
3. Appreciate the performers! My mother always said if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. If you don't like the show, vote with your feet and don't go back again, but arm chair critics who have never set foot onstage are never appreciated, do we come to your work and criticize the way you bag our fries?
4. Get involved! Don't like what you see when you go to the theatre? Volunteer to help out. Unless you live in New York or LA chances are the bulk of work that goes into whatever show you are watching probably had public support either volunteer or financial.
5. Come back and bring a friend! Community theatres are dying every day in this country for lack of funding. Even a bad stage play is more entertaining than a night of TV, so come back often! Try this, put one months movie and cable TV money into theatre tickets or spend a Saturday helping at a local community or youth theatre.

Learn more about this author, Mark Morris.
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