From the Road: Leg Room

by David Dower

I had to laugh when I saw that the two Citizen Reviews of Ella both had referenced the ample leg room of our new Crystal City venue. I’d met each of the writers at the open rehearsal, and they were both over six feet tall. I’m a tall person, myself. At 6’4” I had the exact same reaction sitting in the theater for the first time. There’s so much room, it feels like sitting in the exit row on a cross country flight.  "Priceless..."

What’s remarkable about the roominess is how rare it is in American theaters. I was painfully reminded of the scarcity this weekend while scouting on the East Coast. I started at PS 122 in NYC, where I caught the work of a young ensemble called The TEAM. I couldn’t put my legs on the floor without driving my knees into the wooden back of the sofa in front of me. I wound up watching the show with my left leg folded under my right and my right leg draped over the arm of the sofa. The patrons occupying the sofa were sympathetic, which helped, but it was still distractingly uncomfortable. Then, upstairs at The Public, I saw the Bay Area spoken word ensemble The Suicide Kings and later the wonderful Dael Orlandersmith (of Yellowman) and had to keep my feet en pointe for both shows because I couldn’t wedge myself in without invading the leg room of the people on either side of me.

But the worst experience of the weekend came last, when I went to see the previews of what is becoming a very exciting new work from Anna Deveare Smith at Long Wharf in New Haven. As I attempted to sit in my assigned seat I found I literally could not. My knees were caught, wedged into the seat back in front of me, pinned by the seat as it was unfolding under me, and I was stuck in midsit! Try as I might, I could not get my feet on the floor and my butt in my seat at the same time.

I went back to the lobby to see whether there was perhaps a seat on the aisle, or the front row, or some standing room in the booth—any other solution to the problem. I found a colleague there who had one “on the aisle” she kindly traded with me. The seat was on the end of the row, yes, but the inside end where the exit vom was and it was hemmed in by metal scaffolding. So, there I was having to contort myself using the airspace beyond the scaffold in order to get myself twisted into the seat as the house lights faded to start the show. I literally watched the two and half hour show perched sideways on my seat with my feet flung up over the metal railing and dangling over the vom.

So I wanted to take a moment to express my own appreciation for Arena Stage in Crystal City and to thank the folks at both Woolly and Shakespeare for making sure their new homes have sufficient leg room for people my size. Know another theater that deserves a nod for comfort? Tall patrons of the American Theater—let’s celebrate them!