Faery's Kiss, held during this weekend's Irish Festival [4] at Bellarmine, was a solid show, with plenty of wit and humor. Unfortunately, a simple rule of theatre etiquette regarding doors was missed, and the show became one of overcoming distractions.
At Bellarmine, those side entrance doors are loud. Coupled with the outside light coming in, it can make for a major distraction during a show in a darkened room. Numerous times, however, people walked in and out of them during the performance.
Even more insulting was that some people would walk in and out during pivotal moments in a show, like during a cavern scene when the only light should have been the actors' flashlights.
Also, some people would take a look in and hold the door open for long past a moment. The light practically blinded half the audience.
In terms of theatre etiquette, not leaving during the middle of a performance is one of the most basic rules. It's understandable if there was an emergency. It's even understandable in between scenes. However, there seriously could not have been that many emergencies, and there certainly wasn't that many scene changes.
Still, blame cannot be put entirely on the people. Where were the ushers to tell people not to go in and out? Where was the annoucement to not do that, alongside cell phones, talking, etc? It certainly was not heard in the five minutes before showtime.
To reiterate, the performance of Faery's Kiss in and of itself was fun and entertaining to watch. Just wish there wasn't so many distractions.