Last week, a Broadway theatre-goer smuggled a phone into the audience and recorded footage of the star of the show “Take Me Out.” This video was released onto the internet.
Those are the objective, and minimal, facts of the situation. These facts describe a situation that would never, could ever, have happened a few years ago, and should not be happening now.
With the rise of the internet, smartphones, YouTube, and streaming, there seems to be a concomitant decline in understanding of what is, and what is not, free for the taking. I confess to being frustrated when a season of a show I’m binge-watching is inexplicably impossible to find, or I have to pay for it despite subscribing to what feels like every streaming service there is. I get it—we are all used to being able to watch whatever we we want, whenever we feel like it.
But live theatre is not streaming. It is not for videoing. And the actors, playwrights, directors, and other theatre artists whose vocations are devoted to the creation of this unique event did not give consent for anyone in the audience to photograph or record their work.
Much is being made of the fact that the star of “Take Me Out,” Jesse Williams, who is also a lead actor on “Grey’s Anatomy,” was filmed during a nude scene. While I agree that covertly videoing a nude scene is an egregious violation of the actors onstage, the vulnerability we ask of actors shows up in many ways, with clothed and unclothed. In other words, making big deal out of this because Jesse Williams was naked misses the point.
Theatre works because the audience and the actors enter into a contract. We’re going to be in the same space, at the same time, and everyone contributes to bringing this story to life. The actors bring their decades of training, craft, and focus. The audience brings its attention and engagement. When these elements come together, transformative art can happen.
One person who films or photographs the play, any play, breaks this contract. That one smartphone makes it harder for actors to trust the audience; harder, then, to do their best work.
There are lots of places where our phones are helpful and welcome. I think it’s a good idea to be very clear about the places where the opposite is true.
