Advertisement

Providence Theater Experiments With 'Tweet Seats'

You don't have to turn your smartphone off at the Providence Performing Arts Center — at least not if you're sitting in the "tweet seats."

The theater is now setting aside a small number of seats for those who promise to live-tweet the performance. Twitter users might offer impressions of the set, music or costumes, or lines from the show that resonate with them.

At a recent staging of the musical "Million Dollar Baby," even a few cast members were tweeting from backstage.

A growing number of theaters, including some on Broadway, have been experimenting in recent years with tweet seats and other real-time uses of social media. Some insist theaters should remain free of smartphones, but others say theaters can't afford not to engage the digital generation.

This program aired on January 28, 2013. The audio for this program is not available.

Advertisement

More from WBUR

Listen Live
Close