Whenever I have to spend the evening in crowded and underventilated balcony or orchestra stalls, I have the urge to spend the rest of the evening absolutely alone with a book to recover a bit. The whole reason I got onto the stage was that it was much less crowded there.
I honestly do find theatregoing unpleasant; this is why you'll usually find me in standing room, if it's available. (Not at the Met any more, for some peculiar reason.) There's no contradiction there. The ability to make theatre and the desire to be in the middle of a crowd are completely different things.
The purpose of this month was as much theatregoing as possible ($5/$6 seats at the two prominent houses in town), and that is proceeding apace. The dojo will shift, inshallah, in coming weeks to evenings with a bit more of the scent of the lamp.