Saturday, November 19, 2011
How will you celebrate House Manager Appreciation Week 2011?
Backstage at BackstageJobs.com | Life behind the scenes…: In recognition of the difficult work our theatre House Managers do every day, last year I declared the final week of November to be House Manager Appreciation Week. While last year’s was pretty good, I expect all of you to make this year’s second annual House Manager Appreciation Week even better. And you better get to work on it, because it starts November 28th!
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6 comments:
This is great! Theatre has so many thankless jobs and House Management is most definitely one of the least appreciated ones. It is true that there is a lot of unknown stresses to the job, but just the fact that putting on a show is more difficult to do without the House Management is enough to thank them! It's great that the timing for this week has been so thought out too, because it will hopefully cheer up the house managers dealing with the extra stresses during that season.
I have never understood the attraction of being a house manager. I think of all the jobs in the theatre world, house managers are the most under appreciated.
I've always been curious as to what the protocol is for starting the show - do you open the curtain exactly when you said you would even if not all of the patrons are seated? What training is needed for being a house manager?
After working at Utah Shakespeare Festival I appreciate House Managers even more. Besides all the listed jobs in this article, our house managers had to "secure" or keep people from walking through the open field behind our outdoor theatre. This would often result in them running from one corner to another while in polyester suit jackets no less all to keep the viewing area of the show clear.
I also don't understand the great appeal of house managers but I do appreciate all they do to help the show run smoothly. Best of luck to all the house managers as we enter into the holiday season!
I think it is great that there is an appreciation week for house managers! I have been in the theatre world for about five years now and have seen some unbelievable scenarios that the house manager has had to deal with. They most definitely deserve at least a week of appreciation. While all the cast is getting ready for a show, the house manager is making sure that all is well on the outside. You don't want an upset audience before the show starts. They are like the receptionist at a Drs. office. Your impression of them may influence your ever returning to another show. I appreciate all they do!
This is a very interesting event in that this guy decided that this day would be a day to appreciate your House manager. I wonder how many people actually follow this or is it just a thing that he puts on his blog. Also when there seems to always be one of those appreciation days there does not have to be another. I know that people need to be appreciated and all but people should just do that themselves and without someone prompting them to do so. I understand these types of days for nurses, teachers and other large groups of people that help a lot of people but I don’t feel that House managers need to be in that.
How about we're all just appreciative and nice to everyone all the time regardless of their job? They're are a LOT of thankless jobs, and a lot of jobs that are really hard, but that doesn't mean that everyone gets their own week of appreciation. Also, by designating as single week as "Such-and-such Appreciation Week," we're implying that the rest of the time we don't really need to pay much attention to that position. Thank the people who do work for you and be nice to your colleagues.
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