Audience member recounts how man jumped on stage before performance of Hand to God in New York hoping to charge his phone

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Theater etiquette rules are fairly straightforward: don’t be late, keep quiet during the show and if you are not a cast or crew member, stay off the stage.

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These rules didn’t seem to trouble one audience member at Thursday’s performance of Hand to God, who startled crew and fellow theater-goers by climbing on to the stage of the Booth Theatre before the show started.

Once on stage, he tried to plug a cellphone charger into a power point on the show’s set which, it turns out, was fake.

Cast members on stage during a performance of Hand to God. Photograph: Supplied

Chris York, who was sitting in the mezzanine section on 2 July, recounted what happened on his Facebook page, and news of the audience member’s behavior was getting wider attention on Tuesday.

York told the Guardian the incident occurred about two minutes before the show was set to begin, and that the man who jumped to the stage was in his early 20s.



There were no stairs to the stage, York said, so to get to it the man had to leap and then walk about 15 feet to the outlet that, York said, was “clearly fake”.



“The whole time it was very bizarre,” York said.

At first, people thought it was a part of the show, he said, but once they realized the truth, the audience started laughing and heckling the man. The crew stopped the pre-show music, removed the charger and made an announcement to the audience prohibiting them from charging their phones on stage.



York said he couldn’t tell if the man said anything in response, but that the actors “were very aware of what happened”.



Hand to God actor Sarah Stiles questioned whether the audience member was reacting to a full moon or if he was just an idiot:

Sarah Stiles (@Lulubellestiles) A guy jumped on the stage and plugged his phone into the fake outlet on our set just before we started. @HandtoGodBway #fullmoon or #idiot ?

Actor Marc Kudisch informed audiences that set outlets are not the same as real outlets.