Close Proximity Audience Member Watch
So being that the theater holds maybe about 100 or so bodies, and there’s no actual pit for us, we take up a bit of room and ergo, I am sitting almost in the audience. Which is slightly odd for me. I’m seriously about a foot away from the person sitting on the very end of the first row. (It’s general seating, so it’s usually the last seat taken.) Which makes me nervous about the person sitting there. I certainly don’t want to be blasting in their ear so they can’t hear the vocalist, but I still want to be able to play comfortably. Plus, I don’t want to poke them with an errant up-bow. So I’ll be documenting the poor (or fortunate, dependant upon how much of a cello fan they are) soul who sits in that seat.

Opening Night - An older gentleman who I thought would be cranky, but turned out to really enjoy being close to the musicians. He asked me questions about the music and said he really enjoyed listening to it. (Amusing aside - my parents came to the show to find out it was SOLD OUT! With such a small theatre, we’ve sold out every show except Thursday nights and Saturday matinees. So I had to actually send them home and have Tommy pick me up after the show was over.)
Saturday Night - An older lady by herself. She came in about halfway through the second musical number with a REALLY loud, jangly key chain. I thought she’d be unhappy sitting there, but as she was leaving, she told me how she really enjoyed the music, and how wonderfully I played. As I was leaving that night I had a group of people tell me how much they enjoyed watching me play. I even had the sound person tell me how pretty it sounded. Now, that’s a first - I never usually hear anything from the crew members.
Sunday Afternoon - Empty seat. *Phew*