Doesn't the height of the front of the stage also affect what you can see? I've been to some plays were in the front row I could only see from the waist up if they moved back at all.....
I try not to sit in the front row anymore - can see facial expressions, but at the risk that you might miss some of the play. For Lestat, couldn't even tell there was a wolf on the stage at the beginning!
There wolf projections in Lestat?! Damn! Yeah, I was sitting in the front row too. It was kind of horrible when it gets to seeing things in back, plus I couldnt see the actors from ankle down unless they're at the tip.
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky. With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high! Blood-red were the spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat, when they shot him down on the highway, down like a dog on the highway, and he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat...
(The Highwayman. Sung by: Loreena McKennitt)
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
To Kill A Mockingbird