When it comes to theatre, I’ve been all over the place. I know I’ve talked about acting and my backstage work, but there’s something else I have a ridiculous amount of experience in. It’s dirty work. You’re on the ground, and completely unappreciated by anyone and everyone. No one higher up pays you much attention, and the people you do interact with don’t always necessarily treat you the best. You’re walked all over, and nobody will ever know your name. I am talking, of course, about working front of house.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term “front of house”, I’m talking, in basic terms, about ushers. From the ages of 16 through 29 or so, I worked front of house at People’s Light about ten years combined. And I’m not kidding about everything I said up there. Front of house is definitely not as easy as most people think it is. On paper, sure. There doesn’t seem like there’s much to it. They tear or scan tickets, hand out programs, help people to their seats…at People’s Light, we also ran concessions. And yes, those parts are the easy parts. I could seat people in my sleep. But there’s a lot more to it.
The biggest thing that people don’t factor into the equation is dealing with people. Dealing with patrons at a theatre is just like any other customer service job. But honestly, I think it’s a lot harder than a lot of other customer service jobs. With lots of other customer service jobs, there’s a barrier between you and the customer. A counter or desk or something. Working front of house doesn’t allow for that. And I think it’s always resulted in a closer sort of working relationship. It’s hard, being that close to people. Especially when they’re not happy with you.
And people do get very unhappy with you, just like in any other customer service job. One of the hardest parts of this is that there’s usually very little front of house can do to fix the problems. Lots of things relate back to box office, or other departments of a theatre. And as much as we can try to fix things, a lot of the time, it’s just not possible. Obviously we try to smooth things over as best as we can, but sometimes it’s just not possible to fix things. I’ve seen people be terrible to the front of house managers, I’ve been yelled at…some patrons are just awful.
Front of house is on the ground and running things, so we’re the face of the theatre. Most people don’t acknowledge that, if they realize that at all. I’ve been all through back offices of theatres, and there is a ton that goes into running a theatre. But most patrons don’t really think or know about this. Front of house is what they see, who they interact with. They have to be good representatives for the theatre, because they’re the ones patrons are seeing. It’s a big job that most people think is a small job.
Having worked front of house many times over the years, I have come to the conclusion that everyone who works in a theatre should work front of house at least once. It really does take a specific skill set, something you can definitely learn as you work front of house, and something you can’t really understand until you’ve actually done it. I’ve been in positions where higher ups have ridiculous demands for us, or don’t think about what we need to do to keep things running. I feel like if they tried it out, they’d understand a lot more about the face of the theatre.
I’m definitely not saying front of house is all bad! It can definitely be a rewarding experience, and a lot of fun. Otherwise I wouldn’t have spent so much time working the job. It’s really nice interacting with people. Most people are really lovely, and very grateful. I loved getting to talk with patrons about the show, and writing down questions during talk backs. I also got to know a lot of really cool people. Not just other front of house and box office workers, but actors and stage crew and other backstage workers. I spent a lot of time in the green room, hanging out with people that I still love dearly to this day.
In general, it was a fun job. As much as we were the bottom of the totem pole, I loved being the face of the theatre. And more than that, I was absolutely proud of it. People got to know me. They may not have known my name, or anything about me, but I was someone who they saw all the time, and I became someone to them. It was a good feeling. There are a lot of patrons I still think about to this day. It wasn’t easy, and sometimes I felt like everything around me was chaos, but we had a job, and we did it.
So yes, I think that front of house workers are the unsung heroes of theatre. Things would never run if it wasn’t for front of house. There would be no shows going on if we weren’t there to make sure they were going on. I’ll never forget my front of house days, both the ups and the downs, and I wouldn’t change my experiences for anything…no matter how much I’ve bitched about it then, and apparently, still have it in me.
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