Technology is ruining live theatre.
This may seem extreme but hear me out! Take it from me as someone who basically lives in the drama department that phones and tablets are the banes of my existence.

Do you want to know the worst feeling an actor can feel when they are performing? Some might say it’s messing up the dance of forgetting a line. But no it’s trying to deliver a heart-wrenching, emotional line well you hear the oh so annoying sounds of someone texting. The loud clicks seem to echo through the entire theatre and suddenly you are more concentrated on trying to ignore the noise than performing to the best of your abilities.
You will never know the true pain of trying to perform a solo and suddenly it’s a duet because Deborah in row 7 was too busy kicking the seat in front of her to pay attention to the director saying “Mute your cell phones” over the speakers.
You will never understand trying to look out into the audience to see if your family is there only to be met with 7 I-pads being pointed at you, blocking the entire crowd until you have stepped foot on stage.
Some may say stage lights are blinding, but I would argue that the flash that’s unknowingly shining from Kelly’s phone in the front row is like a lighthouse hitting you in the face. I’ll let you decide which is worse.

Theatres around the world have tried to compact the issue of the rogue cell phone sound by implementing phone locks. As soon as you walk into the theatre you would put your phone into this pouch and a staff member would come around and lock it. Now right off the bat, I see a few problems with this.
Number one, what if someone doesn’t mute their phone then it goes off? The bag their phone is in is locked, so how would they mute it?
Number two, People are addicted to their phones, do you really think that you could get people to voluntarily lock their phones up and not be able to use them during intermission or before the show? That’s unlikely

Now one of the newest things I’ve noticed in this new era of running the moment is that people have the audacity to go on TikTok during the show? Why even pay to see this show if you’re just going to use it as background noise. Here I can think of a much better alternative to this, go listen to the musical soundtrack or download a podcast, it’s really not that hard.
Everything I’ve said so far has been from the perspective of a performer. But I can promise you we are not alone in the battle against devices. Theatre enjoyers also hate when a cellphone goes off in a darkened theatre.

At our school, we have two casts of each show. This year, I’m proud to say I made it to watch all four of the other cast’s shows. We sat above the audience on the balcony. This gave us a perfect view to do what we do best, look down and judge what people are missing out on an amazing show for.

And that’s just the part that makes no sense to me. Picture this, you have just spent $400 to see Hamilton on opening night in Vancouver. You spend all day excited about it, 8 pm rolls around and you get to your seat, front and center, with the best view in the house, and decide at that moment to text and scroll on Instagram during the show. You decide to leave your ringer on, so you ruin the experience of everyone around you. And you will most likely be asked to leave. So, now you’ve basically lost $400, and your seat to watch this musical you’ve been looking forward to, all because you what, wanted to live-tweet the experience?
Next time you are going to support a theatre group, consider giving the actors the respect and audience members the experience that they deserve.
Don’t text, it’s really that simple.