Sometimes the best seat in the house isn't in the audience

From the archives of my papery blog (aka my journal), when I was the Assistant Stage Manager on a show in the round, such that my ASM station was in a corner between some seating risers, giving me a wonderful view of the audience on all four sides.  The show consisted of selections from Shakespeare (including a 20-minute cutting of Macbeth that tracked the relationship between Macbeth and Lady M from the beginning through the end), interspersed with commentary from the actors:

I'm writing this from my corner in the theater in Act 2, and there's a guy in the last row of the center section (he was a late-seater, making for a very noisy and distracting entrance as he climbed over everyone in all the rows in front of him) who's got his coffee balanced on the riser railing and has baggies of food on the seat next to him, and he's shoveling nuts or something into his face.  Before that he was writing... with both hands at the same time.

(45 minutes later) He just slept through Macbeth.

The following week:

Tonight during the show a woman starting staring at me with a creepy smile, craning her neck at a 90 degree angle to do so.  After a couple minutes of intermittently staring back, I wondered aloud on headset what she was up to.  She slowly lifted a finger to her mouth in a "shhh" gesture and continued staring at me with the creepy smile for a few more minutes.  And then just before the end of the show, she turned to me, gave me the same creepy smile, and nodded, before returning her gaze to the stage.... Between that and the curtain behind me making a noise and moving when there was no one there and no draft, I'm pretty sure I'm in the opening of a horror film....

Yep, the best seat in the house is definitely sometimes at a stage manager's station....