If you attended even a little theater this year, chances are you crossed paths with Brett Love—tall guy, big forked beard, gentle manner, often rides a motorcycle around town as he scoots from lobby to lobby as Seattle's most devoted audience member. When we talked earlier this month, he admitted he'd only seen 270 theater and dance performances in 2014. That's just 5.2 per week, down from last year's record of 310 shows—but it still tops 2012, when he sat through 241. (As a rule, he does not sneak out early. Theater people, as you might imagine, adore him.)

"Guess how long I've spent waiting for shows to start this year," Love says. "I mean, the time between what it says on the ticket and when the show actually starts." He pauses. "Thirty hours—1,800 minutes." That's an average of 6.66 minutes per performance. "Everybody starts their shows late, and I don't see why," he says. "'We're holding the show because traffic is bad.' Traffic is bad every day! Parking is bad on Capitol Hill every day!" Love says he has a "logical mind," so the excuse bugs him. "'We're waiting for a few people who are late, but the 90 of you already sitting there—your time is not important.' A bargain was made when I purchased the ticket that the show would start at a certain time."

It bothers him for a practical reason, too—he often plans to see multiple performances in a night, and late starts eat into the travel time he's calculated between theaters…

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