This morning I want to direct your attention to the Playwrights' Perspective blog, an excellent blog dedicated to the plays and playwrights coming out of the Boston University MFA program (naturally, I am one of those).
The excellent blog is run by playwight Alexa Mavromatis and today she has posted a column about the idea of selling "tweet seats" for theatre shows. These are seats where patrons can let fly with Twitter posts while they are watching a show. She has rounded up several playwrights (including myself) to offer up opinion about this development.
I am very interested in the relationship between audiences and the performance on stage -- my interest has been fueled by the Intro to Theatre classes that I teach. I also adore -- and I mean adore -- Twitter. (@wernertplays if you didn't know already). Today we have a theatre where audiences are asked to be quiet and respectful upon pain of death. It wasn't always this way. Are we losing something in the mix of community that is theatre when the performers are to be treated like hothouse flowers? Or should we fight like crazy to preserve the victory of audience attention? I won't pretend that I have the answer. But the question is a fascinating one.
Hey Werner -- Thanks for the shout-out! I agree it's an interesting debate...one that no doubt will continue to evolve. I wonder if opinions will shift as audiences (and performers, playwrights, etc.) have more "tweet seat" experiences in theatres and other venues. Time will tell...
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