A few years back a play of mine was mounted in a cabaret space in the village. For those of you unfamiliar with the Duplex, it's an intimate little spot (seats about 75, I think). The play was shockingly popular, given its dramatic weight. It concerned a family drama spanning several decades, and the long shadow cast by the death of a young actress, wife and mother on the cusp of stardom.
Not your typical cabaret space fare. Over the few months of our run, I hardly missed a performance, nor did my wonderful dedicated producers, Darren Chilton, Chris Arruda and Brad Carpenter. In hearing the feedback trickle in, we slowly began to discern a pattern that I personally found fascinating and altogether unexpected.
Before I tell you what it was, I need to describe the venue a bit. The room is narrow and longish and the audience sits at tables, upon which sit drinks, usually alcoholic, which are served by a nimble waitron. I think there's usually a 2-drink minimum. Three-quarters of the tables are short and surrounded by normal chairs. Toward the back, however, are about 4-5 high tables, at a height that requires a bar stool high enough to leave any person's feet dangling in mid-air.
Slowly it became clear to us that without exception, those people who experienced this rather heavy drama with their feet touching the floor were far more emotional about the piece than those at the high tables.
This got me thinking. See, I think that when our feet are dangling in mid-air, part of our brain is necessarily occupied with our balance in a way that isn't true when our feet touch the floor. Therefore, I deduced that the people at the short tables were more emotional about the play (sometimes to the point of crying) because they were able to lose themselves more completely in it. Whereas the folks at the high tables always talked about the play in purely intellectual terms.
I recently told this to my Dad, who is a practicing psychiatrist and an avid reader of medical journals. My story reminded him of a study that found that if a patient's blood pressure is checked when his/her feet are dangling—rather than firmly planted on the floor—the diastolic pressure will be slightly (and artificially) elevated.
So it seems to me, there's some scientific evidence to support my theory that, if you want to be fully absorbed by a show, be sure your feet are touching the floor.
It's a start, anyway. The rest, sadly, depends on countless variables generally not within our immediate control.
