There isn’t one single “best” seat for everyone — but there is a sweet spot, and it depends on what you value most. NOTE: These tips are for a theatre with 99 seats or more.  Smaller theatres typically have good seating options (except on the extreme sides), but the tips below can apply. Here’s the short, honest breakdown from a theatre-maker’s point of view for a large theatre. [more]

Trigger warning:  This post may piss you off. Theatre should make us uncomfortable.  That discomfort is not a flaw to be mitigated but the point: a live encounter with ideas, bodies and emotions we’d rather avoid.  Trigger warnings, when they pre-emptively sanitize experience, risk training audiences to manage their feelings instead of confronting them.  [more]

Watching a play as a theatre creator is different from watching it for pleasure. You’re not judging taste — you’re studying craft under pressure. Here’s how to do it without killing the magic. 1. Watch the problem, not the plot. Every play is trying to solve a dramatic problem. Ask early: What does this play need to make true? What tension is it built to sustain? What would break if one character disappeared? Don’t track events. Track necessity. [more]

An admittedly subjective list below, in no particular order, but first ... What are yours? [more]

In a play, intermission isn’t just a break — it’s a referendum.  The audience has enough information to decide whether the contract still holds.  Staying means: I’m willing to see this through, even if it changes. Leaving means: The pressure hasn’t earned my time. (more)

Yes — and in theatre, this is less an aesthetic failure than a material one. In plays, the second act is never better than the first because theatre is an event, not a recording. (more)