Hello dear friends of BWW, Patty and I have released the first video in a new series we are doing aimed at teaching young, eager theatre goers how to properly behave themselves at the stagedoor. I hope you enjoy! We've got 7 more lessons on the way!
This was great! lol. Had a terrible stage door experience at IF/THEN, not to do with the cast or anything, but I wanted to get my windowcard signed by Idina and there were these "fan girls" who kept telling me "Idina doesn't sign posters", "It's rare she signs a poster", "She only signs Playbills", and discouraging the younger teen fans who (of course) brought Frozen/Elsa items. How are these people gonna tell me what she will and will not sign? Needless to say, she DID sign my poster and they stared me in the face like I had committed a sin.
Ha! I feel like stagedoors are filled with incidences like that. The fan community surrounding a star feels a kind of ownership over the star, as if, because they are the "biggest" fans they are now responsible for keeping the star safe from the "other" fans. It's so silly!
Without bread we'd just be hungry
but without theatre we'd be dead
"Had a terrible stage door experience at IF/THEN, not to do with the cast or anything"
I wonder if Menzel's "Fanzels" are the worst population of fandom to hit Broadway (particularly post-Frozen), and if those kinds of fangirl experiences like yours are rare for other shows/performers...
What's funny is I've often found cast members to be MORE enthused to sign the poster than the playbill. It's a bigger writing surface, plus it shows you spent a little extra at the show.
"Grease," the fourth revival of the season, is the worst show in the history of theater and represents an unparalleled assault on Western civilization and its values. - Michael Reidel
GreasedLightening I see what you're getting at, we're not specifically marketing the videos to any group in particular. The tips apply to people of any age going to the Stagedoor. However the majority of people who already watch our videos seem to be young.
Without bread we'd just be hungry
but without theatre we'd be dead
Fine. Just thought I'd point it out because in your OP you mentioned that this was aimed at young theatre-goers. I have never watched one of your videos, therefore I was not aware it was aimed at a wider audience. Apologies.
One of your tips was about not bringing weird sh*t for people to sign and I had to wonder why you so shamelessly broke your own rule and documented it in a public video:
I don't mean to speak for them, but by weird sh*t, I'm pretty sure they just mean stuff the actors would be embarrassed or annoyed to see. If you watched the whole video, Patti and Laura seemed happy to sign it. I don't think it was inappropriate at all and even found it to be quite amusing.
I think it definitely qualifies as weird sh*t. Whether or not Patti or Laura were receptive isn't really the point, there's no way to know who will and won't find certain things funny and who will be annoyed. Nobody's psychic, there's no way to know what someone would be irritated by, you can only guess. They could have easily guessed wrong on this and my point was that if everyone starts doing things like this, it could well become quite a nuisance for actors and for the theatre employees tasked with managing the stagedoor after the show.
I wouldn't have even brought it up if they weren't purporting to offer etiquette rules for "the rest of us". To me, this is not a stellar example of great stage door etiquette.
Updated On: 9/19/14 at 02:19 PM
Their videos are made with comedic intentions, and I just don't think you share their sense of humor. They're not trying to imply they're more in the know than "the rest of us."
I think you're reading way too much into this. God forbid someone walk around with a big, scary sign on a public sidewalk. Actors are more than capable of expressing for themselves what they will and will not sign.
Maybe also take into account that the video you posted was put on Youtube almost 4 years ago and perhaps current day Patty and Emily wouldn't carry a large poster like that to a stagedoor to get signed if they were met with the opportunity tomorrow.
Regardless, I found the video funny and entertaining, as I find all the videos these two post.
If actors are more than capable of setting their own ground rules and there's no discussion to be had, then why do we need anybody making stagedoor etiquette videos at all?
And I really can't tell if you're being purposefully obtuse or not. If everyone felt entitled to getting something large, obtrusive, or otherwise inconvenient signed, that would be quite a traffic flow issue, wouldn't it? And if the stage door had been more crowded, I would imagine the crowd wouldn't love being sardine-canned in with the two girls who decided to bring a giant sign. Imagine someone trying to pull this at If/Then stage door as it is now. All I'm saying is that if you want to set yourself up to be an example and to be a leader and to put yourself in the position of giving "rules" to other people, your own actions that are inconsistent with those rules might just get pointed out.
I'm actually having a great existence this week, but nothing is quite so irritating as hypocrisy. If a discussion wasn't what the girls desired, then they shouldn't promote their YouTube videos on the board, obviously.
It's a video meant to be taken lightly. It's not he form of hypocrisy that you're making it out to be. They're not saying, "don't bring strange things unless you're us because we know better." That's you reading too much into things and attempting, obnoxiously as always, to, as basketcase said, ruin the fun.
Glad you're having a great existence this week. If only you weren't so intent on ruining everyone else's.