Sizing Up Your Seating

With all of the built-in flexibility of seating that is available today, are you as adaptable as you could be finding more spaces and places for your patrons to sit?

By Allan T. Duffin

Two years ago, when the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, Calif., needed to accommodate a variety of seating configurations in its new Samueli Theatre, management relied upon experts in audience seating to give the venue maximum flexibility. The resulting design allowed for 375 patrons in stadium seats or a club/cabaret style with 320 people grouped around tables of four, among other layouts.

One of the contractors involved in the project was StageRight Corporation, based in Clare, Mich., which sells a range of seating products for everything from small presentations to major event staging. Whether your theatre seating is fixed or moveable, choosing the right vendor is critical. “Theatres should look for a supplier who will take the time to gain a better understanding of the scope of the project,” says Bill Gareiss, vice president of sales for StageRight.

Gareiss notes that other manufacturers he typically sees involved in flexible seating projects are the Wenger Corporation and Staging Concepts. Other available vendors include Comfor Tek Seating, Seating Concepts and Stage Technologies. To select the best fit for your theatre, “do your homework ahead of time to define the scope and uncover all the needs of the project,” urges Gareiss. “Research two or three different manufacturers to seek the best fit for your theatre.”

In addition, Gareiss recommends that theatre administrators include their staffs in the decision-making process: “The most successful projects include a team approach where the operations, programming and front office are all involved.”

Maximum flexibility for your venue

Whether you’re overhauling a fixed seating layout or figuring out how to utilize ramps, decks and risers in moveable configurations, it’s important to balance a number of factors. “The challenge lies within selecting seating that will meet needs of space, capacity and quality versus the available budget,” says Alex Tiscareno, spokesperson for San Diego-based Seating Concepts LLC.

Maximizing a theatre’s seating configuration provides better sightlines to the stage, allows the greatest number of patrons to see your shows-and consequently increases your box office receipts. “As a producer, I want the maximum number of seats in there,” says Jim Bumgardner, who oversees student theatre productions at Bergen Community College in Paramus, N.J. The college’s Ender Hall Laboratory Theatre is a black box that seats anywhere from 80 to 125 people depending on the type of show. “Each time we put in a new set we redo the seating chart as quickly as possible,” he adds.

Bumgardner keeps one eye on aesthetics and the other on maximizing the floor space in the theatre. “I always encourage my designers and tech staff to explore,” he says. “Our black box is one of my favorites here because the various configurations allow designers to express themselves differently, and allow actors the intimacy that a black box can bring.”

Products to make the most of your space

Let’s say you’re ready to sit down with a consultant or vendor. Before you do so, says Tiscareno, request references from those potential contractors. Ask for information about their past installation projects that are similar to your own. That way you get a sense of the contractor’s capabilities and quality of service.

Then, “check with your local municipality to determine what current building, flammability and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance codes will affect the quantity and seating scheme for the venue,” says Tiscareno. In addition, closely examine the existing floor layout: is it flat, sloped, limited by fixtures or posts? When Preferred Seating LLC of Indianapolis, Ind., was hired to provide new seating for the auditorium at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., “we installed 1100 seats on risers and also on a forced slope,” recalls Director of Marketing Frank Sumner.

When preparing proposals for clients, Gareiss looks at “a plan view and elevation drawing of the performance space including dimensions of the room, exits and entrances, ceiling height, the shape and size and location of storage areas for portable equipment, and the location and size of the doorways and hallways, including any freight elevators that lead to and from the portable equipment storage areas.” Other useful information: the theatre staff’s ideas for types of configurations they need, type and size of seat to be used, and a goal for quantity of seat in each configuration. “Understanding all these scope issues will ensure that the best system of portable riser and storage equipment will be used for the project,” explains Gareiss.

The use of moveable risers can improve sightlines for patrons and allow for multiple seating layouts for different types of performances. The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center, a performance space at the La Jolla Playhouse in California, uses StageRight’s ML1600 portable risers to seat audiences from two to 450 people. Transportability, storage capability and ease of use are crucial for a seating system, says Gareiss: “A good system will get used in many configurations because it is easy to set up and change from performance to performance.”

Moveable seating should also be sturdy and quiet. Noisy equipment distracts the audience from what’s happening onstage. A riser system that doesn’t lock properly can sway back and forth-and possibly injure patrons if it fails to operate properly.

Comfort and sightlines: picking the right seat for your audience

For your specific venue you might perch folding chairs on risers or bolt permanent seats into the floor. Either way, be choosy when selecting the type of chair in which your patrons will reside during performances. “Ask for a sample of the product,” says Tiscareno. “Test the seat and investigate if the comfort you feel today will still be present in the future after the venue has undergone a substantial amount of patron traffic.” In addition, inquire if the sample chair will work with the theatre staff’s criteria for quantities of seats in each of the planned floor configurations.

At Bergen Community College’s black box theatre, Jim Bumgardner and his crews use individual seats for their audiences. “We found that individual chairs work better for us than connected ones,” he notes. This flexibility comes in handy since the theatre has been configured as a proscenium stage, a thrust, three-quarter round and, at one point, a long narrow stage in the middle “with the audience on either side like a basketball court,” says Bumgardner.

When investigating what seats are best for your venue, make sure that the product sample meets your expectations regarding style and aesthetics. Seating should feel comfortable and also mesh with your theatre’s decor. When administrators at Michigan’s Port Huron High School renovated their auditorium, they knew that the 650-seat venue would host both academic and community productions. Their final choice was Seating Concepts’ BA 205 Performer Series, which provided a choice of fabrics and a plastic laminate or wood veneer back surface to match the auditorium’s overall design scheme.

As Tiscareno notes, the overall comfort of the chair is critical. Is it cushioned in such a way that will allow the patron to enjoy the performance instead of wondering why his or her back is hurting? Will a patron’s knees clear the seat in front of him, or bump up against it? When Bumgardner plans out his seating configurations, “it’s important to have comfortable padding with plenty of leg room,” he says.

Also important, adds Tiscareno, are the manufacturer’s warranty and post-installation technical support. “Some manufacturers provide only an industry-typical one-year warranty period,” he explains, “or a warranty that appears to be generous” but features fine print explaining that certain parts of the warranty actually expire during the period of coverage.

Finally, order spare parts for future use. “It is quite a bit less expensive to order spare parts during the initial manufacturing of the seating product, than years later when the product is priced on an individual component basis,” says Tiscareno. “This includes extra sewn fabric seat and back cushion covers.”

Items like sloped floors and portable ramps-providing accessibility per the Americans with Disabilities Act-ensure that all patrons can comfortably attend your productions. Venues like the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C., designate specific seating areas to accommodate patrons who are disabled or have other special needs. At the Warner Theatre, the front side orchestra section is reserved for patrons who are visually impaired or need clear line-of-sight to a sign language interpreter.

Installation, training and operation

“Most of the good manufacturers will include an on-site installation including a training period for the staff,” says Gareiss. He adds that supervisors who take a hands-on approach to the process will ensure that once the supplier departs the job site, the entire theatre staff will be completely familiar with the equipment and how to use it properly and safely.

With seating charts viewable online these days, theatres benefit greatly from merging a new seating configuration with their box office ticketing software. Seating Concepts, for example, provides post-installation seating layout media for submittal to software vendors. In addition, says Tiscareno, “the company is pleased to answer any and all questions regarding the seating scheme for the owner’s associated vendors.”

The total number of seats is important in calculating royalty payments to the rights holders of each production, says Bumgardner. “I have to come up with a minimal number of seats,” he explains. “If we can get a few more in, we can sell them at the last minute at the box office. It makes a difference when we pay royalties.” More seats means a higher royalty payment-a percentage of gross ticket sales-but also a larger income at the box office.

No matter what the production-from an intimate black box performance to a gigantic stage show-a flexible seating system can make the most of the space you have. “The goal is to meet as many needs as possible,” says Gareiss.


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