I just randomly thought of something that was probably inspired by another post about fans interacting with the people they admire and I thought I might as well put it out there while it’s in my head.

Now, I’m sure you are all familiar with the meaning of consent and I don’t need to go into the details of what defines consent. I mention it now because it’s going to be the entire point of this post.

Which brings me to this:

DO. NOT. TOUCH. A PERFORMER. WITHOUT. THEIR. CONSENT.

When you are at the stage door, for the love of all that is holy, do not lay a single FINGER on a performer unless they give verbal consent or they initiate physical contact. For example: hugging a performer. I’m going to draw from two personal experiences for this point. Last summer, when I saw Phantom, Sierra Boggess was playing Christine and she came to the stagedoor. One of her fans, out of nowhere, practically jumped on Sierra in order to give her a hug, which left Sierra wide-eyed and stunned for a few seconds. Don’t be that person. Instead, be like the girl I saw at the stage door in Toronto when I saw Julia Murney in concert who asked Julia if she could have a hug before the two of them hugged one another. Just take two seconds to ask if it’s okay instead of assuming that the performer you want to hug is okay with you invading their personal space. Or, if the performer knows you well enough or recognizes you from a time you’ve gone too see them perform before and initiates the hug, then you’re in the clear.

I won’t even wrap my arm around a performer when I get my picture taken with them unless they wrap their arm around me first (which is something I believe every stage door patron should put into practice). This allows the performer to be the one to, you guessed it, initiate physical contact.

I understand that you may be a touchy/feely person. I am aware that their are performers out there who are the same, who have no issues whatsoever when it comes to physical contact with fans. But this doesn’t give you the right to invade a performer’s personal space against their will.

TL;DR: DO NOT BY ANY MEANS WHATSOEVER TOUCH A PERFORMER AT THE STAGE DOOR WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT

PLEASE BEHAVE AT THE STAGE DOOR