Parterre

• parterre: In North American usage, the part of the ground floor of an auditorium in the rear and on the sides, often the part beneath the balcony. In Britain it can mean either the area in front near the orchestra pit (in this cases synonymous with “pit-stalls” → stalls), or the whole of the stalls. The term can also refer to the side stalls in some usages. Derived from the gardening term, the usage refers to the sectioned pattern of both the seats of an auditorium and of the planted beds seen in garden construction.