# Audience Member Tries to Use Fake Outlet to Charge Phone



## backstagebadger (Jul 6, 2015)

http://playbill.com/news/article/au...-outlet-to-charge-phone-at-hand-to-god-352658

"Twitter and Facebook lit up Sunday evening and Monday morning after several cast members and audience members posted their speechlessness at a report that an audience member had clambered onto the stage of the Booth Theatre and tried to plug a cell phone charger into an outlet on the set of _Hand to God."

_


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## n1ist (Jul 6, 2015)

It beats having them unplug the board mid-show to plug in their phone...
/mike


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## gafftapegreenia (Jul 6, 2015)

I like when they plug it into a dimmer, or whatever open USB they might find on your equipment.


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## techieman33 (Jul 6, 2015)

n1ist said:


> It beats having them unplug the board mid-show to plug in their phone...
> /mike



Someone recently unplugged half of my LED fixtures in the middle of the show so they could plug in their phone charger. So damn frustrating, especially since it was a "crew member."


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## SHCP (Jul 6, 2015)

I keep an iPhone charger permanently plugged into an outlet in the back of the tech room so that I can plug in my own phone, and for any crew member who needs it. After finding it missing several times, I zip tied the cable to the power strip (with at least four zip ties). In the last show, I went to plug in my phone only to find the cable missing and saw remnants of zip tie on the floor. I had also gone to the trouble of spray painting the cable gold so I could I identify it, and found that it was now plugged into an outlet in another room adjacent to the theater. What goes through someones mind that they think they can actually go to the trouble of getting a tool to cut something loose just so that they can take it for their own convenience? The students reasoning was "that they needed it".


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## Timothy A. Samuelson (Jul 7, 2015)

Or Technical power outlets in the stage boxes less than 2 inches from standard outlets that are easier to access. Hello HUM!!


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## Sarabande11 (Jul 7, 2015)

My favourite thing is that they stopped the preshow music, had crew go out on stage and unplug it and then give the audience a short speech as to why you can't do that. I almost wish they had told him he could have his phone back when he left the theatre. Yargh. I can't be the only person wishing that outlet had been an actual circuit ... And then set it to strobe.


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## josh88 (Jul 7, 2015)

Here's the video of it.
http://www.theatermania.com/broadwa...book&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=07jul2015


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## FMEng (Jul 8, 2015)

If someone needs a phone charge that badly:
1. It's time to seriously rethink your dependence upon the infernal device.
2. Buy a phone with better battery life.
3. Carry a recharge battery.

As I write this, my phone is at 25% charge, and it has been running 3 days and 10 hrs. I guess I'm not a typical user.


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## LavaASU (Jul 8, 2015)

And usb external batteries are like $10 on amazon.


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## Dionysus (Jul 8, 2015)

That is almost worse than the guy who wandered on stage to check out an album (vinyl) that was on stage as a prop for a show. When the stage manager saw him she FLIPPED (in the booth), rarely see ASMs jump that high.

"People Are Stupid", they will believe what they want to believe..... The Wizard's first rule applies, especially with the student who stole the zip tied and spray painted charger from the booth. For that one "just plug in your phone in the booth", so you need to be elsewhere, leave your phone there. C'est la vie.

I agree USB external batteries, more girls should have one in their purse, more guys in their bag or car or what have you. If you have a problem with charge, there is the solution.

Or you could be like FMEng and just hardly use your phone.


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## danhr (Jul 11, 2015)

At my church I've had to disable the outside receptacles from inside to keep gangs of kids from hanging out to charge their phones and start trouble. I considered wiring them to 220v but of course someone in the church would forget. Or a kid's parent/etc. would sue us.


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## facethewolf (Jul 13, 2015)

As an American living in germany, I can safely say that making those outlets 220 volts won't do anything to the chargers. I plug in American power bricks into German plugs via adapters all the time. 99% of all power bricks I encounter can take anything you throw at them


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## MNicolai (Jul 18, 2015)

Little bit of follow-up. The guy issued a public apology through a press conference set up by the production's PR dept. He admitted to having a few drinks before the show and that he wasn't familiar with the etiquette of attending a theater event but that he was quickly learning -- I imagine thanks to the internet and social media.

That he gave a public apology is absurd. That he gave it through the production's PR department indicates to me they felt morally obligated to give him an opportunity to redeem himself in the eyes of the public. Probably so the internet would stop taking his brief moment of indiscretion and displaying it as an example of how rude and inconsiderate people can be.

I have several problems with this but in short, I don't want to set any precedence that publicly alienating the people who come to our industry's productions is acceptable. It's pretentious to assert that everyone should know how to behave in a theater whether they've been there before or not. It's also counter-productive to our art-form if we scare people away from our events with nonsense like this because they're not in-tune with social standards. When we start putting up barriers of culture between ourselves and our potential patrons, we isolate ourselves from people with backgrounds, heritage, personalities, and life experiences that our diverse from our own.

If I could have an audience of 800 theater-savvy people or an audience of 300 people who have never been to or imagined going to a theater performance and who have no idea how to act at one, I'd take the crowd of 300 any day. I put too much blood, sweat, and tears into my work for it to be shown just to people who've seen it or something else like it before.


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## gafftapegreenia (Jul 19, 2015)

Idk, he kinda sounded like a total meat head. Call me elitist.


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## josh88 (Jul 19, 2015)

MNicolai said:


> He admitted to having a few drinks before the show and that he wasn't familiar with the etiquette of attending a theater event but that he was quickly learning -- I imagine thanks to the internet and social media.



and then the next question was someone confirming his age and catching him admitting he drank underage as he tried to back out of it it. lol


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## Moose Hatrack (Jul 20, 2015)

We're_ considering_ staging this whole story as a gag just before the overture to replace the standard "turn off your cell phone" announcement. A friend of the show steps on stage to charge his phone and a thundering "stadium announcer" type VO asks him to return to his seat and turn off his phone. Of course we're doing a comedy...


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## JohnD (Jul 20, 2015)

LOL, you could also have someone in Patti LuPone drag, and tell the audience that she will snatch any phones used for texting during the show.


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## sk8rsdad (Jul 20, 2015)

For a recent play, the director came out with a phone impaled upon a screwdriver and explained to the audience that it was how the stage manager dealt with phones that ring during rehearsal. He added that nobody wants to see what happens to phones during a performance...


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## Dionysus (Jul 20, 2015)

sk8rsdad said:


> For a recent play, the director came out with a phone impaled upon a screwdriver and explained to the audience that it was how the stage manager dealt with phones that ring during rehearsal. He added that nobody wants to see what happens to phones during a performance...



I LOVE IT... I always wanted to have a "swat team" "infiltrate" the house during the preshow announcement and "extract" a placed actor from the audience after his/her phone rings loudly. I think it would be VERY entertaining. Especially in the black box I often work at which has catwalks over the stage and audience.


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## gafftaper (Jul 22, 2015)

Cirque du Soleil: Ka has the best phone announcement. There is a lot of village life and acrobatic work going on during the pre-show. The stage deck is out of sight and there is only narrow walkway with fog and massive fire balls coming out of where you expect the stage should be. A character walks around the front of the stage and a phone rings. A guy in the front row is guilty. The character takes the phone and throws it into the "pit of fire". A big ball of fire comes up. The audience member complains and is ripped out of his seat and thrown in the pit of fire followed by a larger fireball.

It's fantastic!


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## Moose Hatrack (Jul 22, 2015)

Rats! That was our backup plan.


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## kicknargel (Jul 22, 2015)

I think MNicolai makes some good points. I spend a lot of time thinking about how to get non-traditional theatre audiences involved. I'd love to see theatre de-stuffify a bit. That said, my wife saw this show and had a miserable time because of some (literally) smelly and very loud people nearby. It's great that the show is attracting a wide audience, but perhaps a bit of usher training is needed to help everyone enjoy themselves.


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