At the Box-Office

– I want four seats for Sunday, please.

– Matinee or evening performance?

– Evening, please.

– Well, you can have very good seats in the stalls. Row F.

– Oh, no! It’s near the orchestra-pit. My wife can’t stand loud music.

– Then I could find you some seats in the pit.

– I’m afraid that won’t do either. My father-in-law is terribly short-sighted. He wouldn’t see much from the pit, would he?

– Hm... Perhaps, you’d care to take a box?

– Certainly not! It’s too expensive. I can’t afford it.

– Dress-circle, then?

– I don’t like to sit in the dress-circle.

– I’m afraid the only thing that remains is the gallery.

– How can you suggest such a thing? My mother-in-law is a stout woman with a weak heart. We couldn’t dream of letting her walk up four flights of stairs, could we?

– I find, sir, that there isn’t a single seat in the house * that would suit you.

– There isn’t, is there? Well, I think we’d much better go to the movies. As for me, I don’t care much for this theatre-going business. Goodbye!

Note:

· The part of the theatre which has a stage and seats for the audience is called auditorium or house (also: theatre-house).

The long rows of chairs situated on the ground floor of the auditorium in front of the stage are called the stalls (front rows) and the pit (back rows).

The stalls and the pit are surrounded by boxes. There are also some balconies encircling the auditorium on three sides. The lowest of them (coming immediately above the boxes) is called the dress-circle and the highest (somewhere near the ceiling of the house) is known as the gallery.

In most theatres the seats for the audience are separated from the stage by theorchestra-pit. In some theatres however (e.g. in the Moscow Art Theatre) there is no orchestra-pit, and the musicians are placed behind the scenes (back-stage). The sides of the stage and the scenery placed there are called wings.

I. Read the following and either agree or disagree with the statements. Work in pairs.

1) The house is the part of the theatre where the members of the orchestra usually sit.

2) An auditorium is a building or a part of a building in which the audience sit.

3) The audience include both spectators and actors.

4) When the audience is pleased it keeps silent.

5) We say “the house is full” when not all the seats in the auditorium are occupied.

6) The pit is nearer to the stage than the stalls.

7) You prefer seats in the gallery, don’t you?

8) Wings are the sides of a stage with the scenery.

9) The cheapest seats are in the boxes.

10) By the cast of the play we mean all the actors belonging to the theatrical company.

11) I believe you clap to show your appreciation of the acting or the play as a whole.

II. Listen to the dialogues and fill in the table.

III. Make up your own dialogues on buying tickets.

Read and translateText II.