May the 10th 1849 the Astor Place Riot happens in New York New York

The year is 1849 and in New York City a new star is taking back the American stage from the European Actor/Managers who run the American Theatre. The new star was Edwin Forrest who had dragged himself up from a poor background in Philadelphia to tour internationally as an actor of great note. He had the great luck to be carving out a niche for himself with the support of many American writers who promoted him as superior to all the British stars treading the USA's boards. At the time of the riots Forrest was friends with William Macready who was touring the USA with his company in a production of 'Macbeth'. Forrest's friends in the media who were catching the current anti-british zeitgeist started promoting a 'Who is the better actor?' discussion. The columns of American papers were filled with pro-Forrest articles and denigrated Macready which led to public statements being made by each performer against the other. Macready was representing the upper classes of the New York elite who were known to be anglophiles, whereas Forrest was from the gutter. He had begun his New York career at the Bowery Theatre, where the manager was known to try out unknown American playwrights, plays and performers, which fed into the Pro-America sentiments of the day. The two men could not have come from two more different worlds and when the tensions that had been bubbling under the surface came to boiling point a political aspect was truly on show. Macready was engaged to perform as Macbeth at the Astor Place Theatre, a theatre where not all social classes were welcome, so Forrest played Macbeth at the Bowery. It was clear that this was now about the rich versus the poor. After fans and supporters of Forrest crashed a performance at the Astor and heckled Macready off the stage it became obvious something would happen. Macready made ready to leave America but having been convinced to stay and complete his tour by notable New Yorkers, the stage was set. Politicians from Tammany Hall went around on the 10th of May with flyers asking the question 'Shall Americans or English rule this city?' and contained information on where to congregate to protest against the English influence. By the evening of the 10th 10,000 people had congregated in Astor Place, bad feelings were rife, a mob started hurling stones at the Astor Theatre and later when the violence and disruption increased the city militia was called out. They soon stopped firing just into the air and started firing into the crowd. At the end of the riot 25 were dead and over 120 were injured. It remains to this day one of the darkest days in the history of the American Theatre.

Actors attacking Audience Members? Ian Hart is the latest offender! Ban him and the Theatres

"Its official Actors are RUDE, negative and general boors! The actions of a certain actor are obviously that of a madman and my suggestion is we ban theatres. After all when one finds oneself in the theatre we do not have the right to talk to our fellow patrons, our mobile phones must be turned off and we must sit still in perfect silence. Then there is the awful jokes we have to endure, the hammy over-pronunciation of every word in every Shakespeare play and the fact that everyone knows the twist to 'The Mousetrap' but isn't allowed to say. Its all rather fascist really isn't it? Its like a teacher telling you off. I say ban this 'theatre', ban the actors and ban performing arts, its a waste of public money and my bloody time.

Theatre is too dangerous and this latest maniac is living proof. What is the Government going to do about this issue that burns in the heart of our nation? Until they realise actors are more dangerous than hoodies and terrorists nothing in this country is going to improve."

This story is important as people always blow things out of proportion, an actor got angry at the perceived disrespect of this audience and got in someones face. Is that a reason to charge him with assault? I think not but who knows what a judge will say? The fact is this is happening more often, I went to the theatre 3 weeks ago to see The Mousetrap and besides us there were two people talking, behind us a man snoring and nattering everywhere it seemed. People were texting, it is disrespectful to the actors but they need to remember when Shakespeare was around they had to play over the sounds of the crowd, of the street hawkers selling their wares. So do we performers need to lighten up a bit? Or do we need to curb peoples behaviour at the theatre? Make up your own mind, me? Well I would just ignore them in the crowd and carry on acting but thats just me.