Thinking of the joints for these chairs....
For the tops of the front legs where they join the skirts they are mortise and tenon, but I think a sliding dovetail would be stronger, like this....
or even this.....
(without the square protuberance on top of the leg)
the stretchers lower down would be simple M&T joints, as well as the back legs too.
These chair take a lot of abuse, at the end of the act they are dropped onto the safety net which is a good 8' above the stage, and at intermission when the lights go out, the safety net is dropped very quickly to the stage, and the chair essentially falls 8' to the hard stage, it hits in whatever orientation it hits, so it takes a beating.
Using the M&T joints relies on the glue to hold the joint together, I'm thinking that a sliding dovetail on the front legs would be a better combo of glue and mechanical holding the joint together.
The regular M&T joints I'm thinking of using a wooden peg to pin each joint, this would also create a mechanical joint that even if the glue fails the joint should hold.
What do you think?
Cheers!