After Nude Jesse Williams Video, Theater Turns Camera on Audience

He said that if security spots a forbidden phone, it will alert the ushers and house manager, and that “we’re having discussions internally whether we would then stop the show, or send an usher or security when we see someone, to remove them.” He said the theater staff could ask patrons to delete footage from a phone, or could call the New York Police Department for assistance.

Asked what an audience member should do if he or she spots someone filming, Dean said, “We’re New Yorkers. If you see something, say something.”

Second Stage has been using Yondr pouches to restrict phone use in the theater. When patrons arrive, they are asked to turn off their phones and put them into the locked pouches, which the patrons hold through the show and then hand back to be unlocked after it is over. The system, used at some comedy shows, pop music concerts and other live events, is obviously imperfect — some people have figured out how to open such pouches, while others smuggle in phones despite the rules.

Dean noted that Second Stage had mounted the play “Linda Vista” at the Helen Hayes Theater. That play had both male and female nudity, and there had been no problems with videotaping, he said. But he said that he believed that in 2003, when “Take Me Out” first ran on Broadway, someone managed to obtain a naked photograph of the star Daniel Sunjata, even though that run was before the invention of the iPhone.

“Take Me Out,” written by Richard Greenberg, is about homophobia in baseball; Williams plays a team star who comes out as gay and confronts discomfort among some of his teammates. In 2003, the drama won the Tony Award for best play; this week the current revival picked up four nominations, including one for best revival, and three for actors, including Williams, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Michael Oberholtzer. Oberholtzer can also be seen, naked, in some of the online video.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/11/theater/jesse-williams-leaked-nude-video.html