Short people in theaters

Sunny

Sunny

SF VIP
Location
Maryland
Here's a pet peeve of mine: Whenever I go to a theater, particularly for a live performance, the tallest person in the audience invariably sits down in front of me. It doesn't matter where I sit; it always works out that way, like magic. They find me like a homing pigeon and sit down in front of me.

I'm not abnormally short, I'm just a little under 5'4". (Used to be just a little over.) But it always happens, and it did again yesterday. I went to the ballet Don Quixote at a local theater, and sure enough, I got the tall guy again. (Maybe it's always the same person, he follows me around?) I missed seeing most of the first act, as the entire middle 50% of the stage was cut off from my vision. The seat next to me was empty, and it had a blessedly vacant seat in front of it. At the first intermission, I asked the little girl behind that seat if she'd mind if I moved over. (I didn't want to spoil the ballet for her too.) She said yes, and we tried it out, and she said she could see past me. What a nice kid!

So I moved over and enjoyed acts 2 and 3. I'm still wondering what happened in act 1, though.

Why do they design theaters like this? Just staggering the seats in a zigzag pattern would solve the problem, or have a slightly steeper incline. I think the movie theaters have taken care of this problem. But it's a continuing one for people who are short, let alone those who are even shorter than I am. They probably can't see anything on the stage at all!
 

You're absolutely right..staggering the seats in a zig-zag fashion is a brilliant Idea, perhaps we should all right to theatres and cinemas to request they do that.. I thought I was the only one who always got the tall guy..or worse, if it's a musical or a live band..the second the music starts everyone in front of me stands up and I can't see a thing..
 
I love the movies. I am 5"1'. My daughter and I would go into the movies, nearly empty and always people would sit in front of us. I am with you, why do people do this? I/we would have to get up and move. We devised a plan.

Daughter would start coughing. I would say, you still have that cough? Yup. Does the doctor still think it is contagious? Yup. Do you have the rash as well? Yup. Good thing I still have some medication left. Little white lies that hurt no one but every time the people in front of us would move. Lol. Every time.

My daughter has asthma, not contagious, but sounds terrible.
 

Unfortunately, this happens quite often, even in church. Obscured view also happens when a person is wearing a baseball cap or even a cowboy hat. Inside the sanctuary of a church, I always have my cowboy hat off, unless I'm attending Cowboy Church, where everyone wearing a cowboy hat, leaves it on. Just part of going to Cowboy Church.

Generally, to avoid someone taller than me, in front of me, I will sit in an end seat, next to an aisle.
 
Aneeda72 said:
I love the movies. I am 5"1'. My daughter and I would go into the movies, nearly empty and always people would sit in front of us. I am with you, why do people do this? I/we would have to get up and move. We devised a plan.

Daughter would start coughing. I would say, you still have that cough? Yup. Does the doctor still think it is contagious? Yup. Do you have the rash as well? Yup. Good thing I still have some medication left. Little white lies that hurt no one but every time the people in front of us would move. Lol. Every time.

My daughter has as asthma, not contagious, but sounds terrible.
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This is why we don't go to church this time of year. Way too many people go to church coughing and sneezing with colds or even the flu. It is so annoying when, later in the day, a person is taking OTC cold/flu medication, because of people at church. We do get the yearly Senior Dose Flu Shot, but that won't stop us from getting a cold or even the flu...…….it just won't be so bad.

I just don't understand why sick folks think it's a must they attend church or some other public function.
 
Theaters that offer stadium seating is better. I usually try to accommodate the person in back of me, if I know they are having issues of seeing past me.
 
Sitting on telephone books is a thing of the past, these days you need to carry a booster seat or ask the theater if they have one that you can use.
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I'm 5'2" and have the same problem, although it seems not so much the height as the pumpkin-headedness of the person in front of me. My husband and I were just at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. He had bought tickets for orchestra-pit seats, 7 rows from the front. The two seats in front of us were empty, we had a great view and we got there in time to use the restroom and get back to our seats. All was good.

Then just as the show was starting a 5'10" woman took her seat in front of me. I asked my husband to switch seats with me, which he did. She was still blocking his view a little but he could see around her better than I could. A few minutes later, like a scene out of Monty Python, her husband arrived -slightly taller, with a head like a small watermelon. I was on the aisle now but we were right of center stage and I spent most of the show leaning left to see the performance.

He also kept leaning left to speak to his wife, and I was tempted to gingerly place my fingers on his head and tilt it out of the way. I also wondered what annoyance I (and my husband) was causing to the person behind me. We managed to enjoy the show but when the two of them stood up to leave they turned around to face us, and I'm not sure my expression was entirely pleasant.
 
I'm 6 foot tall guy, so other tall guys don't bother me. But I always get the talky, munching teen girls in front of me. I get their loud updates about everything seen on stage, while they are chewing on all kinds of food that mysteriously appear from their purses. These teens are known to roam in packs, and if there's more than two teens in front of you; they will spend most of time huddled and giggling.
 
Figure your spending, go to live Sports stuff with the raised seats in the endzones.
You can carry an athletic seat with you to sit higher too. I gave up on indoor stuff many decades ago.
Seen most of it on tv anyway. I do miss Saturday night drive-ins motorcycle movies! But I have some on Blu-ray.

If I was 5' tall, I would just do sport cars, 4X4 offroad, even UTV off road fun stuff.
Wait, that's what I choose to do! Yea ... :coffee::love: ... I guess feeling it, the stuff you choose and enjoy, have a pin on your hat saying BearSpray near ... :cool: ...

I go to HS musicals too. The stage is raised, and the theater is comfortable too. I do like angled seats for full stage at a glance too.
Not real close to the stage, that where the kids are playing in with the Orchestra musicians.
 

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