stalls

The stalls are the seats on the ground floor of a theatre, closest to the stage. Seats in the stalls, front stalls, the stalls were full.

It is always plural in this sense and takes the. Above them are the circle and the upper circle, and in older theatres the gallery or the gods at the very top. Stalls seats are usually the most expensive except at the very front, where you look up the actors' noses. Note that a stall in the singular is something else entirely — a market stall, a stall in a stable — and that stall as a verb means to stop or to delay.