Side Seats at the Irish Repertory Theatre

I had the unfortunate pleasure of sitting in one of those horrible side seats at the Irish Repertory Theatre in Chelsea during a recent performance of Tryst. You don't feel like you are experiencing the theater; you feel like you are merely observing it - like you are peering at the performance from backstage. You are never acknowledged by the actors, not even during the curtain call.

At Tryst, I pretty much felt like one of those people on the right in Paula Poundstone's hilarious airplane stand up comedy routine from way back. Check it out on youtube.com (roughly 6 minutes into the clip).

It is amazing how your seat can change the whole experience of the theater. I saw this first hand most recently in Tryst and The Devil's Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith.