ARE YOUR SEATS AND SIGHTLINES DISTRACTING YOUR AUDIENCE?

Setting your sights on your audience’s point-of-view can keep them comfortably coming back show after show

By Carla Martin

Whether it’s a musical revival, a Molière comedy, or a one-man juggling act, the audience wants to see everything. Even a less than stellar production deserves to be seen well. But most any performance can quickly get tiresome when you can’t see or your derriere aches. This can be the tipping point for enjoying or hating a performance.

Cushy Seats
It was getting harder to ignore 2,000 squeaky, deteriorating chairs at Zellerbach Auditorium, a performing arts theatre at the University of California at Berkeley. “The chairs were falling apart from years of use,” says Doug Warrick, general manager at Cal Performances, the performing arts presenter and producer for the school. “We probably could have increased capacity-we just chose not to,” says Warrick, who opted for comfort with wider foam-cushioned chairs from Irwin Seating Company.

The University took the opportunity to study sightlines with the help of design consultants at Auerbach Pollock Friedlander in San Francisco. Paul Winter, sales manager for performing arts at Irwin Seating, explains that the plans called for staggering different seating widths to improve sightlines-“just as when you sit behind a row but a person is not directly in front of you and yet the ends line up,” he says.

There’s a lot to consider when buying a seat. Durability, comfort, warranty and low maintenance are key. William Becker, head of operations for Theatre Solutions, Inc. (TSI), in Quakertown, Pa., says that theatres should avoid products that are designed with springs for the return as well as the suspension of the seat. “Springs will fatigue over time and create an installation that is noisy and uncomfortable,” says Becker.

Kurt Schindler, AIA, principal at ELS in Berkeley, says another buying tip is to make sure that new seats have back adjustments so that the chairs in the back or the balcony can be moved into a more vertical position, forcing a spectator to look down.

Becker says that chair prices depend on different factors including the model, quality, fabric, trim level, as well as options and custom features. “TSI seating can range from $250 to $600 per chair,” he says.

Welcoming Every Patron
The Americans with Disabilities Act invariably requires a theatre to remove some of its seats. “The codes say that if you have more than 300 seats in your theatres you have to put the wheelchairs in more than one place,” says Schindler. “And usually that involves loss of seats because just maneuvering the wheelchair and parking in there can take four seats away.”

There are some seats on the market that can lessen this effect. TSI, for example, offers chairs with removable end panels and swing-up armrests. Says Becker, “This option eliminates having to install chairs of larger widths and reduce the overall seat count.” TSI also provides chair assemblies that can be removed to create wheelchair spaces. Irwin Seating makes chairs with a transfer arm and a swing-away end to allow larger patrons and those with prostheses to sit comfortably.

Wider chairs are available for larger patrons. Mark Wretschko, national sales manager for American Seating, has been with the company for 29 years and says that not too long ago the industry standard for chair width was 19 inches. Now chairs can be up to 24 inches wide, larger if necessary. But legroom is important too, so often a theatre might lose one or two rows because of fire codes and egress when installing their chairs.

In 2005, the Fox Tucson Theatre reopened its doors after a six-year restoration. Part of their project included restoring their balcony loveseats, which can seat two or accommodate a larger person.

Ease of Use
At Minnesota State University, recently-retired theatre scene designer Tom Bliese searched for a comfortable seating system for the University’s Andreas Theatre, a black box with a capacity of around 250. Bliese needed seats that could reconfigure easily, without resorting to standard foldable chairs. He found what he needed at the Wenger Corporation. They set up a deal where the Andreas Theatre tested Wenger’s Upper Deck seating system.

Bliese said the system, comprised of seating risers and seats, has been reconfigured in a variety of shapes. “This system moves fairly easily from one configuration to another,” he says, “and reconfigures fairly easily into at least 25 or 30 different shapes.”

Bliese adds that it takes about 10 to 15 students to move the system around. “We can take the system from a corner to a shallow thrust in less than two hours.”

Ever-Changing Stages
Theatres can also improve sightlines with stage enhancements. Serapid, based in Sterling Heights, Mich., sells lifts and wagons to move scenery around. “The fact that scenery can be horizontally transferred and vertically lifted quickly and safely at the push of a button allows ultimate and effort-free stage set up,” says Said Lounis, president of Serapid. But plan ahead: Lounis says that installation takes four to five months.

StageRight of Clare, Mich., offers a pit filler that can extend the stage into the audience, allowing performers more room to maneuver. Bill Gareiss, vice president of sales at StageRight, says that his company can install the system or send out an installation supervisor to train a theatre crew at the facility. It takes about 60 to 90 days from the time of order to complete an installation.

Because prices range from $35,000 to $50,000 for a pit filler, Gareiss says to consider two other matters: storage and the labor required for set-up and take down.

“Sometimes there is an opportunity to save money if the riser or stage is only set in one configuration,” says Gareiss. To achieve a more permanent look, Gareiss recommends that accessories such as aisle lights, skirts and hard closures be used.

However, once more permanent changes to a stage are considered, the impact on the rest of the theatre grows and a consultant might need to be called in.

Why You Might Hire a Consultant
“If you’re changing the configuration of the staging then you might have to change the configuration of the seating,” says Schindler. “Once you do that, then you have to figure all the exiting routes and aisles across aisles, so those all may have to be adjusted. It’s fairly complex.”

Consultants can also ensure that new seating and staging are up to building codes, fire codes, local government codes and in compliance with ADA rules.

The Garden Theatre in Winter Garden, Fla., is in the midst of renovations. General Manager Alauna McMillen says they had many things to consider before converting the former movie theatre into a multi-purpose facility. That’s why they hired a consultant to find a “happy medium.” Typical of a movie theatre converted for stage live performances, the stage was too shallow and had to be deepened to 26 feet.

At his design firm ELS, Schindler says the hourly rates vary depending on the ELS staff assigned to the job and range from $70 to $185 per hour. Once they assess the scope of the job with a potential customer they present a fixed fee. Fundraising this all takes a lot of money no matter where you stand, and new fundraising ideas for special projects should differ from the usual annual campaigns.

The Fox Tucson Theatre held a variety of fundraisers including underwriting chairs from $250 to $1,000 for a loveseat. They also set aside sidewalk space for “stars”-donors of $10,000 or more.

Barbara Smith, executive director of the Coleman Theatre in Miami, Okla., says that the community, with a population of about 14,000, found enough volunteers that much of the restoration work was done with in-kind labor. But there were still costs to bear, including new seats, for the 1600-capacity theatre that had been in business since 1929.

The staff at the Coleman Theatre also started a seat adoption campaign two years ago in which $350 to $500 could get the donor a customized plaque on his or her chair. Some plaques have marriage proposals, with the reply on another plaque. Others are memorials to family members who have died. Smith says that about four to six chairs get adopted every month.

Since the community was so supportive of restoring the Coleman, which sits right on Route 66, Smith made it easier for those who couldn’t afford $350. Smith says, “If a person really just didn’t think they could afford it, we could just let them pay it out over a one-year period at no interest.”

Improving sightlines is generally not a one-step project. Plan carefully, budget realistically, speak with several seating or stage manufacturers, and consider a consultant. The first visit is usually free anyway.

To keep the conversation on seating and staging going, visit the DramaBiz Magazine forums at www.dramabiz.com/forum. and click on “Web Exclusives.”