Theaters bend rules for smartphone addicts

The sad reality in this digital age is that it can be tough to part with your phone for two hours. Even for amazing theater performances.

Theaters have been battling rogue texters and Facebookers for years, and many are just tired of fighting the good fight. So some are now giving in and introducing "tweet seats" where the audience is actually encouraged to watch with a phone in one hand.

The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis is the latest to offer special seats for smartphone users. The $15 seats are only available for certain performances and are on the balcony level, away from the view of other patrons, Minnesota Public Radio reports.

More theaters are setting aside tickets for phone users, recognizing that allowing someone to chronicle a theater performance in real time for hundreds of friends also represents a fantastic marketing opportunity.

"Coast to coast, theaters are experimenting with how to use 'tweet seats' effectively," Rick Dildine, the executive director for Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, told USA Today. "The arts are evolving right now, they are participatory. . . Social media is a tool we rely on, and we have been unafraid to experiment with it."

Tweeting during an opera has even been allowed. The public relations manager from Goodspeed Opera House told USA Today that it was "sort of an enhancement" because it allowed audience members to interact during a show.

A new theater under construction in Bellevue, Wash., is already promising open tweeting. The 2,000-seat concert hall will have a "laissez-faire phone policy," Time reports. One reason? It wants to attract younger visitors.

Once this becomes standard policy at theaters, will movie theaters become more open to the idea?

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