The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis is experimenting with offering a section of seats where people can tweet away during the live performance of The Servant with Two Masters. (Read the story here.)
The idea is still relatively new for live theater and classical music, though a handful of other theaters have experimented with it. In popular music, however, it seems nearly everyone in the audience is taking photos and videos and sharing them via their smartphones.
What do you think? Should performing arts organizations such as Capital Rep, Schenectady Light Opera Company, Proctors or Albany Symphony Orchestra allow patrons who sit in a certain section the ability to use social media during a performance.
Michael Janairo 
I think we have fundamentally lost our minds in terms of what an actual physical experience is supposed to entail. We are it seems, or at least many among us, so obsessed with being able to broadcast information, that I am doubtful we are actually even processing information.
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Rather than Tweet, there, just stay home. Cut out the middle-man.
“Progress Reports” on contending for that all-important shared
arm-rest have lost most of their ‘charm’ by now, in any case.
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At the risk of alienating my contemporaries (the fogy contingent), I welcome anything that will bring more people to local theatre offerings. I believe that if the production attains everything its presenters strive for, then the experience of live theater, certainly unlike any other form of entertainment, will cause most of the social communicators to drop their devices and their jaws, and be caught up in the moment. And even if the performance falls short of that effect, it will have exposed more people to the idea and the experience, who will, in turn, share it. Imagine — live, local theatre going viral! If only.
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I don’t attend theater too often. When I do, I put the phone away and only tweet or text during intermissions or when it’s over. I can wait. I don’t see why anyone else wouldn’t be able to.
At concerts, it kills me how many people are standing there with their arms raised, holding an iphone, filming or recording the show. WTF?!?!? Enjoy it while you are there a**hole. You’re not a recording engineer, nor are you holding a quality camera. It’s going to sound like crap and it’s going to be shakey video. Put it away. Enjoy the show. Clap. And stop blocking my view with a sea of phones.
In other words, I’d love to see venues rope off a section for people who want to spend the 2 or 3 hour concert holding their phone up in the air. Stick ’em in the back. Charge them extra. Put shock collars on them.
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I think it’s a great idea. Put the tweet seats in the parking lot since the knuckleheads aren’t paying attention to the performance anyway and are only taking up prime real estate.
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Definitely not! It is insulting to the artists and musicians and technicians who have created an experience for the audience. There is simply no way that people can text and not miss much of what the artists are trying to communicate.
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