Author Topic: Actor fired after confronting heckler  (Read 4148 times)

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On_Headset

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Actor fired after confronting heckler
« on: Jun 03, 2014, 10:43 pm »
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/03/actor-fired-anti-gay-heckler_n_5439039.html

Of course, if I rephrase it as "actor fired after assaulting audience member"...

dallas10086

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Re: Actor fired after confronting heckler
« Reply #1 on: Jun 04, 2014, 09:57 am »
Because the actor actually touched the patron...unfortunately I have to side with his firing. If the heckling was going on for any length of time, I wonder where house management was to step in quickly and escort him from the audience.

lsears

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Re: Actor fired after confronting heckler
« Reply #2 on: Jun 04, 2014, 12:12 pm »
There are many articles out today about this incident, LA Times, The Wrap, Playbill - here's the one I plan on sharing with students in the fall, since it asks what can theater managers do to prevent things like this:

http://www.hesherman.com/2014/06/03/when-the-audience-bellows-louder-than-big-daddy/

KMC

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Re: Actor fired after confronting heckler
« Reply #3 on: Jun 04, 2014, 12:40 pm »
Of course, if I rephrase it as "actor fired after assaulting audience member"...

You can be sure that if it was the other way around and the audience member had shoved the actor it would read "actor assaulted by audience member".  The headline is written in a way intended to create sympathy for a social issue in line with views of HuffPo's editors.  The audience behavior is obviously unacceptable, but it's equally poor journalism to write that headline.

The incident itself is unfortunate as we can all sympathize with the actor's "why", even if we disagree with the "how".
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

nick_tochelli

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Re: Actor fired after confronting heckler
« Reply #4 on: Jun 04, 2014, 12:42 pm »
This is a massive failure on the house staff. I don't know what rules are in place there, but I can't imagine any house I'm working in allowing an active heckler during a theater performance.

Stand up comedy? Ok sure. That goes with the territory, but at the same time a stand up has the freedom within their act to put a heckler down verbally. That will usually turn the audience against them.

However what I think is a large issue that needs to be addressed (again) is the concept that actors think they need to present a unified front. What's not covered in the initial article that I saw, but saw in others written, Lacy's actions and the actor who played Brick quitting resulted in the show being canceled. I personally would be livid if my paycheck went poof for no other reason than someone couldn't stay on stage and keep their cool. Good for the two actresses who spoke out against this and shame on John Lacy for lashing out at them.

He should know better. Stay on the stage. You have power there. Don't run into the crowd. Let the house staff take care of it. Stop the show. Call for house. Humiliate the drunk. Never leave the deck.
« Last Edit: Jun 04, 2014, 12:44 pm by nick_tochelli »

DeeCap

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Re: Actor fired after confronting heckler
« Reply #5 on: Jun 04, 2014, 01:02 pm »
There are many articles out today about this incident, LA Times, The Wrap, Playbill - here's the one I plan on sharing with students in the fall, since it asks what can theater managers do to prevent things like this:

http://www.hesherman.com/2014/06/03/when-the-audience-bellows-louder-than-big-daddy/

Excellent article.  Thanks for posting!

dallas10086

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Re: Actor fired after confronting heckler
« Reply #6 on: Jun 04, 2014, 03:49 pm »
There are many articles out today about this incident, LA Times, The Wrap, Playbill - here's the one I plan on sharing with students in the fall, since it asks what can theater managers do to prevent things like this:

http://www.hesherman.com/2014/06/03/when-the-audience-bellows-louder-than-big-daddy/

Excellent article. Sums it up quite well. If anything comes of this hopefully it will be that other theaters will take note on what to do should the same happen to them.

loebtmc

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Re: Actor fired after confronting heckler
« Reply #7 on: Jun 04, 2014, 05:59 pm »
And this brings home one of many, many challenges on the 99-seat plan. Chances are, no one from house inside (as would happen in a union show), an inexperienced SM who may or may not have a way to access the actors, the house or the audience, and a producer who is afraid to take action.

I did a 99-seat show as an actor during which someone was filming. The producers were in the house watching, a row behind this person, doing nothing. The cast was backstage muttering and threatening not to come back on for the next scene unless something was done. Because it was in character, I grabbed the camera as I passed her, muttering something appropriately nasty that fit my character, and during intermission I erased the tape.

Turns out, it was the lead's sister, taking pictures at his request. He didn't think he had to ask anyone for permission to shoot his scenes (despite the fact that he was not alone on stage), and even though we had just gone through all this with a request from someone else to tape as well as the show's request for an archive video. He called me all kinds of terrible names when I refused to return the camera until the end of the show. The producers thought the cast was being unprofessional to threaten not to come back after intermission if nothing was done, and they wanted no responsibility. The only action they thought appropriate was to ask her politely to stop (without erasing anything) and be ok with being refused. These producers were terrified of liability.

I told them I was planning to return it after bows, which I did.

Now, when I was a house manager back east, we were told it was within our legal rights to keep any illegally used things like cameras (altho we regularly only confiscated them until end of show, returning them afterward with a warning). Since what they are doing was knowingly illegal, and since the audience members had been warned by both preshow schpiel and signage, we were entitled to confiscate those items.

 

riotous