WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO CLASS?

Last week AT&T released a commercial for their merger with Direct TV.  Their aim was to let everyone know how you could now watch your TV shows and movies from anywhere via your chosen device.  Witty tag lines such as “watch your movies on the move” - “watch Fargo in Fargo”  were used.

There was also a Tweet which showed a person sitting in a (live) theatre with his cell phone up, watching a football game with the words “Catch a Winning Play at the Theater”

This stirred up quite a bit of tension from the theatre community.  We have already had a tough season of rude, and ill-informed patrons in our houses.  Two stories that got quite a bit of attention were the guy who thought it was OK to climb up on stage and try to plug his phone into a fake outlet on the set of Hand To God.  The other being Patti LuPone grabbing a phone out of a patron’s hand as she exited the stage.

These are not the first times cell phones have been an issue in the theatre, nor will they be the last.  We have lost our manners, our class, and our respect.

AT&T may be current with their ads, but they need not encourage such rude behaviour.           

​When Broadway blew up social media over this,
all AT&T had to say was:

“We’ve heard you and the ad has been removed..."

"It was not meant to be taken literally and we meant no disrespect." 

Sooooo, basically the equivalent of: 
#sorrynotsorry
​

Yes, the original Tweet was removed, but thanks to the magic of the interwebs, the tweet lives on.  FOR. EH.VAH.  And the theatre community hasn’t really gotten what I consider a “real apology”  (let’s face it, if I had tried to apologize like that as a kid, my mom would have called bull-shit on my little ass, and I would have had to issue a “real apology”.  Immediately.)

​So, if all of this is not bad enough, on Monday (21.Sept) Playbill.com retweets AT&T’s newest ad, a guy sitting in a theatre on his phone, lighting up the people sitting around him.  
​Oh, and there is a video too.  "Flip between the fight, the game, and the ballet that you didn't want to go to."

ARE.  YOU.  FUCKING.  KIDDING.  ME?
​
Maybe they should take the money they spent on the ballet ticket he did not want, and buy some manners.

As an actor and an artist, I am furious.

As a person, I am sad. Sad and Resigned; Is this what our world is coming to?
I mean, I actually was sitting in an intimate theatre in the round this summer behind someone who: 
    1) showed up late
    2) was texting in the front row.

(this is where I sing CLASS from Chicago to myself.)

But what can I do? 
​I am just one little person.

That is when I realized I am an artist. 
What do artists do?  

We make you feel things.  

We invoke thought and change. 

And we do it with class.


Here is what I came up with.

And a little nod to The Book Of Mormon...
"Turn it off.  Like a light switch!  Just go CLICK."

Now, I can imagine some of you have read this blog and thought to yourself “Aren’t there more important things to get upset about?”

The simple answer is “yes, dear reader, there are.”  

There is also this:

Maybe no one will see this.  Maybe people will.  Maybe this won’t make a damn difference. 
But, maybe someone who saw this will one day be in a situation where they don’t know what to do, but will remember this blog, and they too, will use their art (or other talent) to invoke a change.

Maybe they'll succeed.