Theater is meant to be a completely immersive experience. The actors and the audience are all inhabiting the same space and experiencing emotions together. When an audience member doesn't follow theater etiquette, however, it takes everyone else out of the experience, and it's rude for both the actors and the theatergoers around them. Here are a few rules to follow to ensure the best experience for everyone:
1. Don't use your phone in the theater.
In a dark theater, everyone around you can see the glow from your phone, and everyone around you can hear it ring. Also, tickets to many professional shows are expensive - why would you waste the experience, then, by being buried in your phone screen? When seeing a show, your phone should be turned off, or at the very least put on silent and tucked away.
2. Don't talk during the show.
Even if you whisper, the people around you can still hear. This is especially the case during quiet moments in the show. Other audience members don't want to miss important dialogue, and even if they can't hear the words you're saying, it's still very distracting.
3. Unwrap your snacks before the show.
Wrappers are loud, and crinkling them is a distraction. In some cases, making noise while eating is unavoidable - but you can still take precautions to make eating your snacks as quiet as possible. Try to either open them before the show or wait until intermission.
4. Avoid getting up or returning to your seat during important moments.
It's inevitable that there will be people who need to get up and use the bathroom during a show. If this is the case for you, try to wait until a blackout or scene change before you get up from your seat, as this will disturb the people sitting next to you and behind you. Or, even better, wait until intermission or after the show.
5. Don't record the show.
Depending on the production, this rule is possibly the most important. In a Broadway or other professional theater, recording the show is very illegal. It's slightly more acceptable in a smaller community production, but still rude. Even if you might want to record your child or someone else you know, chances are the show will be recorded anyway, and copies will be made available to the cast.
Generally speaking, just be considerate of the audience members around you. It will make going to the theater a much better experience for everyone involved.
