Tuesday, July 19, 2005

All the world's a stage — including the audience

Call me overly sensitive, but I’m a little touchy when it comes to audience manners, or lack thereof. Recently distracting patrons (how can I complain about overly enthusiastic kids? but leave making-out for the cinema) got me thinking about how much the audience and front-of-house experience affects an evening’s success.

So, at the risk of using another 50 words … Who do you think has the best audiences? The most comfortable seats? The most temperate a/c? Cleanest restrooms? Most interesting ambience? Convenient parking or transportation access? Best concessions? Strongest coffee? Knowledgable box office staff? Friendly ushers? Coolest gear? Smartest playbill?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who do you think has the best audiences: Theatre Vertigo

The most comfortable seats: Hands down, Lakewood Theatre(to be fair, having millions of dollars to renovate the space only helped.)

The most temperate a/c: Lakewood Theatre

Cleanest restrooms: A.R.T.

Most interesting ambience: Miracle Theatre (only because of the colors and cafe, but they really need to update the front of their house. So I guess they have the most potential to be REALLY interesting.

Convenient parking or transportation access: Theatre!Theatre! (Bus #15 stops in front of the building and lots of neighborhood parking)

Best concessions: Backdoor Theatre (i.e. defunkt, Sowelu, etc. only because they are attached to a coffee shop. But I must admit, candy as concessions in general,unless they are imported chocolates, just needs to go. Pastries are fine.)

Strongest coffee: Until someone starts peddling Stumptown Coffee . . . .that's a tough one to answer.

Knowledgable box office staff: Stark Raving Theatre

Friendly ushers: A.R.T.

Coolest gear: defunkt theatre

Smartest playbill: defunkt theatre (though photographs of their company in their playbill would be nice.)

Anonymous said...

The most interesting ambience has to go to defunkt! I love that little theatre--it has so much personality!

I would commend PCS for a good box office and clean restrooms.

I agree with the above comment about Lakewood having comfortable seats.

followspot said...

The coldest air-conditioning has been Mt. Hood Community College, by far. Brr.