Amy B., Executive Assistant, Volunteer Coordinator, Box Office Manager
When I’m at the theater I wear a name tag that says,
“Executive Assistant.” Hamilton Players consists of two employees, the
Executive Director (denise) and myself. When you are one of two employees you
end up doing a little bit of everything. We are fortunate that we have so many
amazing volunteers that help us fill many gaps. That aside, when I come to work
I never know what I might be doing that day.
Of course there is desk work. I help denise process
donations and send out correspondence – everything from thank you letters to
mass mailings. I also process theater school applications for our youth after
school and summer camps. I contact and coordinate the volunteers that work in
the lobby at our shows and special events. Managing the box office consists of communicating
with our season ticket holders, selling tickets, answering questions, printing
tickets, and working at the Will Call window. This is the part of my job that
most people see.
What are some of the other things that I do here at Hamilton
Players?
Clean and vacuum the lobby and theater. Ever wonder why we
are so adamant that cookies stay in the lobby? Even with our reminders it’s
amazing how many ground in cookie crumbs are found in the carpet in the house (theater),
not to mention the wadded up Kleenexes, candy wrappers, ticket stubs, crumpled
programs, etc. Cleaning the house after shows is one of my tasks. Please know
that when we ask you to eat your cookies in the lobby, our concern is that food
crumbs in the theater can attract unwanted pests.
The seat numbers on the arms of the theater seats sometimes
fall off, so when we find those I glue them back on.
Other day to day tasks are cleaning bathrooms, changing
light bulbs, and taking the trash out.
For our Reader’s Theaters or Theater Camp Productions, I often
help denise position lights in the theater. On a few occasions I’ve been
recruited to control the lights from the booth for these shows. Something a
little different for me and a fun experience!
When we have tickets going on sale for our next production,
I typically spend a couple of hours hanging up posters in Hamilton and the
surrounding area. If it’s a nice sunny day this is one of my more favorite
tasks!
Every once in a while I’m asked to help with painting -
painting the stage black, painting our lobby, or even painting the parking lot
stripes.
On occasion, during the spring thaw or during a heavy rain
fall we experience some leaks in the roof. I will find myself climbing up into
the attic with buckets or bowls to access the situation and catch the drips. We
then call the necessary volunteer or contractor to remedy the situation.
Ah spring! We love spring, but with spring comes a rise in
the water table and our crawl space begins to fill with water. Our trusty sump
pump kicks into gear, or at least that is the plan. If it doesn’t, then down to
the crawlspace I go to see if I can get it going. If you drive by and it looks
as though we left our hose running in the parking lot, it is actually the water
from the crawl space being directed to our parking lot drain. If it’s a warm
spring, the run off begins to grow algae. denise and I can be found outside
scrubbing the parking lot as the algae can become rather slippery.
April showers bring May flowers, and weeds. During late
spring and summer we work to keep the weeds at bay around the building. We are
hopeful to resurface the parking lot soon, but in the meantime the cracks in
the pavement are also home to weeds. I spend quite a bit of time outdoors
taking care of the weeds. Fortunately, yard work is another task that that our
fantastic volunteers that are willing to help out with.
When winter arrives I get the shovels and ice melt out. We
shovel and spread ice melt on the patio and ADA ramp to ensure safety for our
patrons as well as ourselves. Hamilton Players does contract to have the
parking lot plowed. We are so grateful that when the snow gets really deep we
have volunteers willing join us in the heavy lifting.
Ever wonder about all of the costumes and props you see on
stage, where they come from and where they go after a show? We store the costumes
and props here at the playhouse and in several storage units off site. Our
storage seems to be always shrinking, because despite our current inventory, a
new show always brings some new costumes. I often am asked to retrieve certain
costumes or props for a show and after the show I put them away.
As mentioned already, sometimes we get pests. A portion of
our building is over 130 years old! Needless to say it has a few cracks and
crevices. Despite our best efforts to plug them all up we do deal with an
occasional unwanted guest. Sometimes this requires me to haul the live trap up
to the attic, or to the back of the shop. denise and have an agreement. She
doesn’t do spiders and I don’t do snakes. Recently, while cleaning the theater
I found a pile of bird feathers in a seat. I feared that a bird had gotten in
and died! Upon further inspection a nest had been built in a void in our brick
wall and the feathers had been pushed through a small gap. I was tasked with
filling the hole (at least temporarily) and cleaning up the debris. This definitely
made the list of things I didn’t expect to do at work that day!
If you ever see me at the grocery store with a cart full of
bottled water, hard candy, pretzels, and toilet paper, it’s likely not for me.
You can bet we have a show that weekend. In addition to show night errands you
may also see me out at the UPS Store, The Paper Clip, Evans Ace, the post
office or the bank. Running errands is something I do on a regular basis.
While I’m not going to lie and say I love cleaning the
bathrooms or picking up waded tissues in the theater after our shows, I do love
my job. It is fun to have a job that is a little different every day. It is
also fun to get to be part of the Hamilton Players community. A community of
creative people, talented people, and people who enjoy the performing arts!
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