WHAT PART OF "NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY" DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND??
Just attended our son's high school performances of The Music Man this weekend.
Wonderful show, the kids worked so hard, it was fantastic.
We rented a brand new local auditorium for the show, since our small school doesn't have one and we had to use a stage in the gymnasium in the past. The theater was great - professional grade lighting, backdrops, scenery panels that we could drop down from the cables above, a real orchestra pit. All the things that we didn't have in the gym!
Each performance was preceded by the obligtory - "Please silence all pagers and cell phones, and
please, no flash photography."
Well, some woman with those HUGE paparazzi-type lenses, sitting 2 rows behind us, starts flashing away, almost from the very first scene. Not just a quick little flash, mind you. No, this was rapid fire "flash-flash-flash-flash", and she kept on, despite me giving her my best stink-eye staredown!!
I was really worried for the kids. The orchestra "pit" was basically a square hole in the floor in the front part of the stage. I was certain the flash would blind someone and they would end up falling into the pit, a la "Spiderman"! I mean, that flashing is distracting enough for the professionals, I can't imagine how hard it was for these high school kids! And this performance was being professionally video taped - now, thanks to her, we have all those flashes on our video!
Luckily, an usher came and told the woman to cut it out. And she FINALLY quit using the flash, although we could still hear her shutter clacking away.
At intermission, the house announcer AGAIN pointed stated, "For the SAFETY of the performers, PLEASE NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY!!"
One of the mom's of another cast member is a professional photographer, and she took HUNDREDS of pictures of every scene during dress rehearsal, without flash. She posts these on smugmug for purchase, so that people can get pictures of their kids, so that everyone can get pictures if they want.
You can check out the pictures here:
http://icpixx.smugmug.com/Theatre/M...c-Man/21747277_kspH7C#!i=1733709973&k=5Jzkqxf
People like that just kill me. I really wanted to ask her why the rules did not apply to her.
Actually, it made me feel a bit like I was at Disney World!
Here are some pictures:
DS is standing in the back, on the right, in light blue shirt
DS is seated, second from left
DS being grabbed by "Charlie Cowell", the anvil salesman
"Oh, you got trouble . . . right here in River City"
"Seventy six trombones led the big parade"
Pick-a-little ladies - LOVE the costumes!