How the auditorium is set up
Avid theatergoers know exactly which seats to buy a ticket from and where the stage is perfectly visible. And for those who go to the theater rarely, we have prepared a little cheat sheet. We tell you about the structure of the auditorium and how to figure out where it’s best to watch from.
Auditorium seating
The classic auditorium in the theater is divided into several parts.
The parterre, the seats in front of the stage on the lower level, are some of the most comfortable in the auditorium: from here you have an even view of the stage, especially from the center seats in the row. Many experienced theater fans believe that the ideal seats in the parterre – the middle of 5-7 rows.
Amphitheater – seats behind the parterre. As a rule, they are located in a semicircle and may have several tiers. The stage is well visible, but since the seats are at the very end of the hall, we recommend you to use theatrical binoculars – they will certainly be useful to look closely at the scenery, the finest nuances of the actors’ mimicry and acting.
The Benoître boxes are at the same level with the stage on each side of the parterre. The boxes are separated from each other by partitions. Some halls have not only boxes in the Benoire, but also classical rows.
The mezzanine level is the tier above the Benoir. Bel étage” in French sounds like “beautiful floor”, and the word itself came from architecture: in rich houses it was the second floor, located above the plinth, that was customary to decorate ornamentally. In the theater, the mezzanine is also very convenient for watching plays and belongs to the expensive seats in the auditorium.
By the way, it is in the center of the mezzanine that the so-called royal boxes are usually located: in former times they were used by monarchs, and today such boxes are open for famous and honorable guests. The royal boxes are rarely available for free sale.
Balcony – seats above the mezzanine. Depending on the size of the hall, the balcony may consist of one or more tiers. Seats on the upper tier of the balcony are called the gallery: from here the scene is much less visible than, for example, from the stalls, but the ticket price is noticeably lower.
How to choose comfortable seats in a theater
The scheme is valid for large auditoriums, especially in the old theaters with a history. But in modern theaters halls can be completely different, for example, consisting only of the parterre or parterre with several boxes at the balcony level.
Before buying a ticket, it is recommended to carefully study the information on the official website of the theater. Many of them offer virtual tours, which clearly show the scale of the hall, its arrangement – the aisles, the distance between the rows and different parts of the hall, the proximity of the first row to the stage and other nuances.