We have links to two stories today, Elisabeth Vincentelli asking that people try a little harder to look decent when they attend the theatre, much as they might be comfortable in their cargo pants and their Black Sabbath 1982 Mob Rules tour official t-shirt, and Alexis Kleinman in rebuttal – with the arts already having problems of being exclusive, why exacerbate by imposing a dress code?
I side with Ms Vincentelli, for three reasons.
First, putting on long pants and a shirt that involves buttons, for men (I’ll confine myself to men to keep this simple), is not a matter of income or class. The people dressing way, way down at the theatre are not poor, just lazy. They have occasions where they have to look decent – work, church, a dinner with guests – and they can do it. It does not take any more money than those cargo shorts cost, and not much is being asked of them. In America’s poorest communities, in its poorest decades, people still managed to put their best on for special days. They can still do it.
Second, theatre, museums, concerts, should be treated as something special. It is special. Dressing in something other than what you wear to watch TV shows that you respect what the artists are doing, and you respect your fellow audience members as well.
Anecdote: I attended a student guitar recital recently. The performing students dressed nicely – not in tuxes, but in non-jeans, non-t-shirts. Some of their parents in the audience came in looking like they had just gotten out of bed. They were disrespecting their own kids.
Third, making a night at the theatre something worth putting real clothes on for will make for a better theatre experience. It’s not tv, or scanning your twitter feed, it is real actors performing a play, and to enjoy that and get a full experience one must put themselves in a proper mental state for it. Don’t just drift in, be excited for what is about to be presented. Putting real clothes on can help get you in that state.
Anecdote: sometimes I work at my home office, alone. I always make a point of dressing ‘as if’ going to work when I do so. Not being compulsive, just that I have found with experience I am more productive when I do that, I am in the right frame of mind for getting work done.
Footnote: don’t even get me started on arts organizations welcoming people drifting in who are focused on Pokemon Go. Just don’t go there.
I’ve been in theater for 40 years now. I wore jeans and T shirts when I was young and it was fun. But now my wife and I are at OSF for first time to see some shows and it’s astonishing to me how people dress. There was a time when boys were dressed like men. Now men dress like boys.
I must add that the insistence of theaters to cram as many uncomfortable seats into a space doesn’t encourage upscaled dress. It’s like Guantanamo in some of our theaters. We have to make them comfortable.
I used to have to dress up for church before I left home. When I switched my religious affiliation to MUSIC, I used to dress –well, — WELL. I am really horrified that so many people who can — and DO — afford quite expensive tickets to concerts and opera dress as if they’re taking out the garbage. Is going to the Met or the New York Philharmonic not even as “special” as going to church? GET A GRIP, folks!