Author Topic: COMMUNICATION: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements  (Read 117939 times)

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ljh007

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #15 on: Nov 18, 2007, 10:57 am »
A different DC theater uses a classic guilt trip announcement to get people to turn off their cell phones. The announcement starts like a normal one... "please turn them off..." etc and then says something like "really, you don't want to be the one whose phone rings in the middle of the show, do you? Everyone will look at you. I know you think your phone is already off, but what if it isn't? That would be so embarrassing..." etc. At the beginning, the patrons ignore the speech like always. Then the chuckle as it goes on a bit. Then everyone reaches for their phone to seriously check that it's turned off. Ah, the power of negative reinforcement - guilt and embarrassment. Gets 'em every time. The announcement is a little long and silly for my taste, but it seems to work pretty well.

jspeaker

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #16 on: Nov 18, 2007, 11:38 am »
A different DC theater

Which one???
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Scaenicus

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #17 on: Nov 18, 2007, 01:25 pm »
We often have an actor in costume make the announcement, like I believe they do in certain Broadway shows such as Spamalot.  For some reason, audiences listen more to actors.

During our production of Evita, we had a Spanish teacher say the announcement first in Spanish, then in English; it seemed to catch the audience's attention.  Show-specific twists like that are always appropriate.

We usually say that cell phones interfere with the wireless mics, so it is imperative that they are turned off.  We offer, like someone else pointed out, to collect the cell phones of anybody who must be contactable during the show and notify them of any calls.  Audiences often listen to that.
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shorty

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #18 on: Nov 20, 2007, 09:11 pm »
our school did a year with frog and toad as the children's show last year.  the director asked the sound designer if one of his daughters would be willing to read the preshow announcement.  we did two public performances and his daughter did the reading (it was already pretaped since we did several school shows earlier in the week and the public performance reading was different than the school reading) and she asked everyone to turn off their cell phones.  it was quite cute and grabbed everyone's attention to listen to the announcement.
*o*
Sarah

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #19 on: Nov 24, 2007, 01:45 am »
I saw a show tonight that took place in Cuba. The preshow announcement was in Spanish, but was very clear about turning off phones. They even said "Ring Ring" with a spanish accent to make it even clearer (kind of hard to describe it). Overall, the audience liked it and get the message. I did not hear one phone go off.
I would have to agree with the posts above that coming up with something creative that that audience will get but will also find cute, etc works well. Of corse having something that is really funny before a depressing show and vice versa will probably not work.

kiwitechgirl

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #20 on: Nov 24, 2007, 07:26 pm »
I've come across a couple of good ones; the first announcement ran something like "ladies and gentlemen, we would like to inform you that we are using a new entirely wireless sound system for this show, which gives us a superior sound quality.  Unfortunately it also has a side effect: if your cellphone rings, you will be electrocuted by it.  So please switch your phone off for your own safety.  Thank you."  It worked - I laughed a lot because I could see the wires running to the speakers, but 95% of the audience didn't know better!  The second was an announcement for a group called the Naked Samoans, and ran "ladies and gentlemen, we would like to inform you that we have a cellphone jamming device in place.  If your phone rings, a very large Samoan will come and jam your phone where the sun don't shine.  Switch them off!"  Worked like a charm...

katykat29

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #21 on: Nov 29, 2007, 01:57 pm »
Working Seussical right now.  The I bring the house to 1/2 and then start the preshow speech.  The lights dimming seems to get patron's attention and the preshow speech is in rhyme so it also gets a chuckle.  I can't remember the whole thing, but the cell phone bit is:
"We must not hear your cell phones ring.
We must not hear them while we sing.
We must not hear them beep or buzz.
We must not hear them just...because"

It gets a laugh every time and I haven't had any trouble with cell phones going off.

MacDouga

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #22 on: Dec 16, 2007, 12:45 am »
When I've done the announcements before the show I've always tried to remember to thank the audience for being there since "without you, all our effort would be for nothing"... or something to that effect.  While this doesn't directly address your question, I'm just thinking that maybe this approach will cause "some" of the patrons to feel a bit more gratitude and they really WILL listen to the rest of the announcements!

KMC

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #23 on: Dec 16, 2007, 02:44 am »
"We must not hear your cell phones ring.
We must not hear them while we sing.
We must not hear them beep or buzz.
We must not hear them just...because"

I think this one takes the cake so far!

Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action. -T. Roosevelt

erin

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #24 on: Dec 17, 2007, 03:47 am »

Effective Live speech by actor:    "please take this opportunity to turn OFF  any pagers or cell phones. Tuck them away, or we will take them away. I am quite serious.   We have specially trained people standing by.  With mallets. "

zayit shachor

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #25 on: Dec 17, 2007, 03:50 am »
Once at a production of Into the Woods:

"...and remember, there is no cell phone reception in the woods, so please turn them off to save batteries."

J

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #26 on: Dec 17, 2007, 08:11 pm »
I think we need to just start building the theatres with thick enough concrete ceilings and walls to REALLY prevent them from working.  I heard a rumor that it was becoming illegal to have cellphones on in theatres and movie theatres in some states.  Totally a rumor that I heard though.....can anyone back that up or point to more evidence of that? If it's true, that would definitely be a win for our team!

Dee

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #27 on: Dec 17, 2007, 08:25 pm »
This doesn't pertain to the recording really but we always add into our speech "For your maximum enjoyment please turn all cellphones to vibrate!"  It always gets a laugh and rarely do we have a prob.

Mac Calder

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #28 on: Dec 17, 2007, 08:39 pm »
I think we need to just start building the theatres with thick enough concrete ceilings and walls to REALLY prevent them from working. 

Actually, the trick is to build a thin metal mesh cage around the auditorium. This turns the venue into a faradays cage. Linkey

wtcsrstaph4life

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Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements
« Reply #29 on: Dec 17, 2007, 11:24 pm »
One of my friends was telling me that a show he worked on had plant in the audience and during the live preshow announcement, their cell phone would ring, then they would get surrounded by ushers who would take the plants phone, bring it on stage and smash it with a hammer.