I'll admit . . . sometimes when I do something new, I know it's going to miff a few folks. But boy, I had no idea that our tweet seat experiment at Godspell would attract so much attention.
Well, the buzz was so loud about this subject, that we actually attracted the super cool Brian Williams and his Rock Center crew, who did a whole story on cellphones and Broadway . . . and yes our tweet seat experiment. I've posted it for you below.
By the way . . . our tweet seat experiment was a big success. How do I measure success? Our #1 concern was making sure that not an audience member nor a performer was bothered by the tweeters. And, after the show, I personally polled about 20 non-tweeters . . . and not one of them even knew we were having a tweet seat event. And the cast gave their tweeting thumbs up as well.
How else did I measure success? About half way through the Godspell portion, I talk about some age demographics. My answer is how I knew we did some good.
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10 Responses to The “Tweet Seat” debate featured on Rock Center with Brian Williams.
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Saw Rock Center as it aired. You were great! Congratulations on your constant ingenuity and fearlessness.
I reiterate… Genius!
Uh, I’m seeing The Deepest Play Ever tomorrow. Before it closes well, tomorrow.
Tickets that are actually affordable…..
I’m very impressed with the LaMaMa people.
M
Madonna made her career from trying new things (or using things that worked) and she said once ” when people are talking negatIvely about you it’s because you’re doing something right.”
Diablo Ballet in Walnut Creek, CA just did a wonderful experiment where they Twittered live during a dance performance. Fascinating and started lots of talk. There was an NPR story about it.
Here is the article about Diablo Ballet’s controversial Twitter night
http://www.contracostatimes.com/moraga/ci_20071574/twittering-about-twirling-observations-diablo-ballets-march-2
Your comment on the cell phone rings by demographics is so on point. It happens in evening shows but I have noticed even more so at matinees
Mr. Davenport, you might have gathered by now, how much I admire you and your organization. I am a fan. It is in this context that I am so greatly disappointed that you choose to have a Tweet Seat Event. Please do not encourage social media while attending a live theatrical event. You are enabling a horrible trend that needs to be reversed not accommodated. Luckily, nobody you polled was annoyed by the behavior. Where were these people seated? I find even the light emitted by mobile devices to be extremely distracting. I vote that technology be installed in each theater that blocks cellular signals. I own an iPhone and I Tweet like the best of them, but not in the theater. Its just plain inappropriate and rude.
Being a bold New Yorker, and an actor/producer, I have no problems telling anyone around me to shut off their phones if it goes off during a show or if they take it out to play on it ! I think we should all consider this.
Re: your experiment – if no one was bothered by the tweeters, and they were away from all audience members who might have been bothered, then its a great idea for marketing and producing – and that is what you are good at. I think the bigger discussion which you have brought up many times is HOW to make social media OK wherever and whenever as long as it remains unobtrusive ! Once we find out the HOW, we are good to go ! This needs to be discussed regularly with the League and amongst all producers.
[...] we have ongoing debates over the value of Tweet seats in theatre: will they bring in more young people? Marketing departments certainly hope so. Some new theaters [...]