Please, Silence Your Cell Phones

It’s getting to be pretty standard that there’s always one person who doesn’t pay attention to the “silence your cell phone” speech that is given before every performance at every theater. It never fails that during a dramatic moment of any play, someone’s phone rings. I can think of at least two occasions where someone answered their phone and held a conversation in the theatre, while the actors (attempted to) continue acting. When you’re doing a play about cell phone etiquette, these interruptions are still funny and rude, but also rather ironic.

On our opening night on June 10^th, Howard Shalwitz gave our preshow speech and ended with “In a show about cell phones, I feel like I don’t even have to say it… in fact I won’t say it.” The next day, our Communications Director received this email from a patron:

I don't make this stuff up.

So about 20 minutes into Act I, I hear a cell phone ring... and it is not coming from the speakers where the sound cue cell phone rings are. And someone in the audience answers the phone. Another person in the row behind me says, "I'm over here, Seymour" and waves. And Seymour says, just as if he were in his living room, "I see you." He starts saying "excuse me," in his outdoor voice, as he nudges his way through the crowds. Most of us in the neighborhood were contemplating re-naming the evening Dead Man: Cell Phone.

So, don’t forget to turn off your cell phone! If you haven't seen Dead Man's Cell Phone yet, you're not too late! We've just extended (twice) through July 14th.