Benched at the Theater

Last night I went out with a couple of girlfriends of mine to see a play that yet another girlfriend was in.  This was at a small community theater, although not in our own community.  We went to dinner first at a darling little restaurant called Sage.

I am not big into using my blog to advertise, but I must say that this restaurant was really great.  The service was good, the food was excellent, it was just the right amount of casual and elegant.  It felt like we were having dinner at someone's house if that someone was wealthy, but did not need to flaunt it, had an amazing cook, and who decided at the last minute not to join us, leaving us guests to feel like we had the place to ourselves (along with the 50 0r so other people who were there).  We had a delicious bottle of wine, followed by another delicious bottle of wine (friends of ours were at another table and sent it over--what wonderful friends to have!).

We were having such a wonderful time eating, drinking, and catching up on all the goings on in each other's lives that we hardly noticed the time.  The show was going to start at 8:00 and when I finally thought to check, it was 7:52.  Our amazingly attentive wait staff was suddenly not so attentive, which often is the case when they realize you won't be ordering anything else and they don't have anyone waiting to occupy your table.  Maybe they thought that if they left us long enough we might decide to order dessert.  The clock was ticking and so one of my friends got up and started searching for our waiter so we could get the check.

Thank goodness the theater was just down the street.  We parked, dashed in, collected our playbills with the official "tickets" we had purchased online attached.  They were Post-its.  This is local theater.  But, no mind, they had our seat numbers hand written on them (the seats I had selected online), and the show had not yet started.  We breathed a sigh of relief that we had not missed anything, and that we were not going to be blocking anyone's view of anything as we took our seats.  That whole, "Excuse me, pardon me, excuse me, pardon me," bit can be pretty awkward after a show has begun.  But, like I said, this one hadn't.

Oddly, nobody seemed in a rush to seat us.  As we stood there in the back of the theater I glanced around trying to determine where our seats were so we might seat ourselves.  It is a tiny venue, and it should have been no trouble to find our three empty seats in a row. Only, there weren't any empty seats.  Not in a row, and not anywhere else.  They were not seating us, because they had sold our seats.  I guess I should say REsold them.

Now if we had not arrived and the show had started, I can see that perhaps they might have let someone else sit down in our places.  But, the show had not started.  Regardless, they decided to gamble that we would be no-shows, and sold our seats again.  Another girlfriend of ours who is also part of this little theater company, but who was not in this particular show, approached.  She seemed flustered and with no explanation of what the heck had happened, she led us to the only place available to sit.  A hard bench that was placed against a back wall directly next to the band, way to the right.  The seats we had purchased in advance were more center and in the second row.  They were also occupied by three elderly people who we did not dare ask to trade us at intermission.

As there was not really room for three on that hard bench, a low chair was dragged over and placed next to it.  Now, we aren't as old as the people they'd double sold our seats to, but two of us have had back surgery (me being one of the two).  So sitting on a hard bench for any length of time was not going to be much fun at all.  especially when the bench was pulled up to a wall, forcing us to sit at a 90 degree angle.  To make matters worse, the bench was rather high.  I don't think it was intended to be a bench actually.  It may have been a console table of some kind come to think of it.  Regardless, my feet were dangling which only added to the strain on my back.

We are good humored gals, and we are also supportive friends. So we sat through the first half in discomfort and watched as the person we'd come to see did her small part.  She is a good actress and an even better singer, but this was not exactly a showcase of her talent.  She had I believe, two lines.  Had I known that ahead of time, I might have waited to come see her in something where she had a bigger part.  Especially if I was going to have to sit on a hard console/bench with my feet dangling in order to do it.

I have three kids, and five dogs, and a father-in-law visiting.  I had left them all behind.  Earlier in the day I had run to Petsmart to buy dog food.  With five dogs we go through it pretty quickly.  I had forgotten to ask the family to make sure the dogs were fed, and since there really wasn't enough to go around in the bottom of the old bag at breakfast time, I wanted to make sure they got dinner.  I had sent a text message to each member of my family before we left the restaurant, hoping that at least one of them would get it so the pups wouldn't go hungry and eat my desk or something.  If you read my last post you know they already ate the sofa.  The sound on my phone was off, and I peeked at it to make sure that somebody text me back.

Sure enough, after intermission when we were once again "benched" someone came up to lecture me about texting during the show.  I hadn't actually text anyone, I was making sure that someone had text me.  But regardless, there was nothing behind me but a hard wall.  I highly doubt that the wall was bothered by my peeking at my phone.  I'm not sure who it was that complained, but they would have had to have been behind me.  And the only people who had that vantage point were the ones who worked at the theater.  I cannot believe that they would have the audacity to say anything at all to me or my friends after having collected $34 dollars apiece for seats that they then sold to someone else before the show had even started, and with no explanation, refund, or apology, put us on a bench and one low chair.

I suppose it's good that they take their shows seriously even though it is local community theater.  But I think perhaps they are taking things a bit too seriously when they start lecturing people for what in comparison to what they did to us, could not really be considered remotely rude.  Normally I would not have peeked at my phone in a theater, wall behind me or not.  But, I could have had five dogs starving, and I couldn't let that happen.  When the man was trying to chastise me for my cell phone usage one of my friends asked him, "What happened with our seats?"

He tried to defend what they had done by saying we had been late.  I reminded him that the show had not started when we'd arrived.  He said that regardless, at exactly 8 PM they resell the seats.  I considered sending him a bill for the chiropractor that I will no doubt need to visit after being stuck on a hard bench for so long.  Needless to say, I won't be going to that theater again.  If one of my friends does a show there in the future, I may send someone in to video the whole performance with their cell phone, and then text it to me.  Hopefully they will do so from a front row center seat that had been paid for twice, preferably with bad checks.