My response when I was told by security that I couldn’t bring my umbrella in and then by the ticket person that if I leave to put it in my car that I cannot come back in was an angry proclamation that “This place is bullshit!” It was rude and, although I stand by the sentiment, I regret the tone. However, it did get the attention of someone who pointed out to the security person that the smaller kind of umbrella that I was carrying was fine. I was already frustrated from getting lost trying to find the place,¹ but even if I wasn’t frustrated then I’d still feel that this wasn’t the best way to greet new patrons to a new arts center. The least that they could do is put the ticket scanner person on the other side of security. I mean, this is suburban Atlanta: you are going to have a lot of people with concealed carry permits coming there and there will definitely be a few who aren’t going to know in advance that they can’t carry there and aren’t going to be terribly happy about the idea of having to check their (not very inexpensive) weapons. Let people at least have a chance to drop their unapproved items back in their cars before you refuse to readmit them. Or, even better, drop the security theater: the moment that I walked through it I noticed two different ways that I could have smuggled contraband and even other people in without much trouble. I spend a lot of time in theaters and auditoria and this and the Fox are the only two places that do this.
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