Sunday, February 07, 2010
Ushers crucial at concerts, theater and sporting events
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Tony Grieco practically bounces out of his seat as he talks about the things he's seen since he started working as an usher at Forbes Field in 1949 when he was 18."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Ushers and front of house staff are perhaps the most neglected people in the business of putting on a show. But this article does a good job highlighting some of the essential services that they provide, particularly in the customer service areas. The article begins talking about more serious issues why there needs to be ushers in a theater, such as fire safety from upper floors, but it does not really go into that. Generally, ushers are patrons of the arts who do that job to see these various shows- all in all very clever.
As one of very FOH members as my profession (sound mixers are always in the house on the same level with audience), I have always appreciate ushers' job at the theatre. No matter how much they like the theatre, their volunteering is a huge contribution to our theatre industry.
Those volunteers usually being elders, they are expert of life, which is the people who experience a lot of drama in their life. They are intelligent, smart, polite and offering their time to the event. So we should respect them. I take that the theatre offers lots of opportunities for education to the young and children; in this case, learning how to behave from ushers' professional attitude.
I hope patrons keep good manners and parents take advantage of theater to educate their kids to learn from ushers as if your "grandma/grandpa".
When I went to Benedum Center to watch 'In the height', I was surprised becasue that ushers are elder people. In korea, usually ushers are 20's youth. I think the elder ushers were very kind and they did well their job. they Because I have experience to work as an usher, I can understand how it is important job in theatre. Ushers should be a guid and make preliminary atmosphere (i.e let audience dont take picture or get call)to watch show.
I think ushers are one of the important theatre people. Also I respect to elder volunteer ushers' passion about thetre.
From a management standpoint, I think that ushers are a great way to keep an eye that things are going the way that they should in the house while you're making sure the show will open on time. The house manager and ushers really help keep things moving at a steady pace, especially if there's an emergency or if people are trying to do things that they shouldn't be doing. I've seen it happen many times that the ushers catch an issue before it gets higher up to management. I think it's also important, as he mentions in the article, for these people to be welcoming and make the patrons feel like they are there to help not scold. It really makes a huge difference.
I think that the jobs of the ushers and other front of house staff are seriously undervalued. Without their hard work, the experience of going to a theatre to see a performance may not be nearly as enjoyable. I took a tour of the Chicago Theatre over the summer, and in the past, ushers at this theatre had a whole system of signals between each other so that they could more efficiently and effectively serve the people who came to see performances. They took their jobs very seriously, which is as it should be, because their absence would be a huge loss to the functionality of a theater.
I believe that house management and their ushers are just as critical a part of the performance as the rest of the production staff. They manage the most variable part of any performance… the audience. In addition to doing the everyday normal tasks listed in the article, one thing that most people do not realize is that they are also a key instrument of safely for everyone in the theatre. They know (or should know) all of the emergency procedures, or at least be able to help carry them out upon hearing instructions.
Especially in an emergency situation, being able to communicate with a large number of people not necessarily accustomed to the space is very important. It could mean the difference between panic and safety.
Post a Comment