Reflections and Lessons from My First Weeks

Yesterday, as in all days when I finish a house job, I come home giddy and exhausted. My fingernails are so destroyed that I have trouble popping gum out of its case. My feet arches groan under the pressure of one more step. But my brain is on fire. I want to share every single little interaction and undertaking. I can tell Z braces for impact when the apt door swings open wide.

But the last 2.5 weeks has taught me a lot of things. I think I'm fortunate that I'm incredibly different than my predecessor. I'm not a bad version of her. I'm no version of her at all.

They give me interns to help. (Some actually help. Some are just annoying. I've already figured out my favorites.) These interns are high schoolers. They had to go through both an audition and an application process. They have to give back a certain number of hours and for that, they get special classes with the artistic director. The interns do a play together. They are kids that are serious about their craft.

Most of the interns I've had, E (my predecessor) had. They are also teenagers so they know they know the drill. I'm not so confident in my role there yet that I feel so inclined to retrain a bunch of people that tell me they already know how to do everything.

But then on Thursday something happened. When I said in passing, "So you've probably already done this a hundred times," she responded with. "No. I just got into the intern program."

I was pulling cold bottled water from the fridge and had to stop mid air. Did she just say she'd never done this before? That was weird.

And it was weird for just a little bit. I'd never had the chance to start from scratch with anyone before. I'd never had to explain to someone why what I was doing was the right way to do it. I realized in this moment that for E, this job defined her fully. It was a huge part of personality. I've been struggling with this a bit because it feels weird to step into a job where *I* see it as a stepping stone on a career path but not the career objective itself. It only feels strange because I'm filling the shoes of someone who felt very strongly about the job itself when she was in it. So yes, I like the job and the more I do it the more I will be defined by it, but I still see it as a job. Not as God's work. (I actually see no job as God's work...mine or others.)

But talking with this new intern (who is one of my favorites) helped me realize that I do have strong opinions about how I think I want to approach it. House Managing is about logistics. Logistics of comfort and the logistics of speed. In its barest form, it's the challenge of getting a group of people from one place to another place by a certain time. We do this before the show. We do this at intermission.

But we also need to make people feel as comfortable as possible. Some of that is just making sure the bathrooms are well stocked and clean. But when I was talking with this intern, I also realized that what I like about this job is that people are telling you all the time what would make them more comfortable. They may not be telling you directly but if you look across a room and a bunch of parents are struggling to entertain their children b/c they got there too early and the parking is terrible then they are telling you something. They are telling you to bring a box of crayons and some paper. And then when you offer it to them they will have a memory of the theater understanding their needs.

At intermission, which is only 15 minutes long, people are really rushing to finish the snacks they've just purchased. There isn't any food allowed in the theater but that doesn't mean their child still doesn't convince his parents to buy him the GIANT cookie. THEN they try to finish it in time. THEN I spend time cleaning up actual child vomit.

But that also means there is an opportunity to see a problem and find a solution. First half of the solution, my boss said in passing, "Too bad we don't have bags for these cookies." The next day I bought paper sleeves and now we put all the cookies in these sleeves. The volunteers love them b/c they don't have to man handle individual cookies with napkins (awkward and slow) at concessions and parents love them because they now have a bag.

The bag idea helped me realize another solution: At the end of intermission,  instead of yelling from the top of the stairs that it's time to go back in, I walk around and tell each group of parents and kids that there is about five minutes left, please start wrapping up snacks and going back up stairs, and here would you like a plastic ziplock bag to help. The response I've gotten has been TREMENDOUS. Not only am I getting a chance to talk individually with people but I'm also meeting a need they didn't even realize they had until that very moment.

And that's the real point of this job: make people as comfortable as possible. That is what I'm getting paid to do. And yes, sometimes that still means I have to tell them they can't sit some place due to fire hazard or I have to clean up vomit or be reeeeally nice to an annoying parent, but it also most often means that I'm getting to obsess about psychology and personal interactions and try and come up with smoother systems.

So in a lot of ways, one might say it's my dream job.

PS- Another thing I tried: Z helped out on Friday for both shows. Before he went in, I asked him to think about any places he saw improvement. He didn't say anything for a day or but then on Saturday night he made two points: 1. We have volunteers at the top of the stairs (the theater is upstairs) and they bring people to their seats. (The seating is confusing.) The volunteer ushers group around awkwardly and then none of them are aggressive so they all stand back as a group of patrons comes up the stairs. Zach suggested putting them in a line.
2. The second suggestion both he and one of the other volunteers suggested. The volunteers have been asking, "Can I help you find your seats?" The patrons have just dealt with parking. They have 3 4-year olds having to use the bathroom. They aren't sure if their cell phones are off. They do NOT have the mental ability to answer that question truthfully.

So on Sunday I told the volunteers that I wanted to try an experiment, and that afterwards I wanted their feedback. I said that I was going to have them stand in a line (programs in hand) and that when a group walked up the stairs, whoever was first in line would jump out and say, "I'll take your ticket and will help you find your seat." No questions. No having to think. Just get them and get moving.

Both groups of volunteers responded REALLY positively. Amazingly so. For the second group, as soon as I suggested the line and the phrasing they all got really excited and saw the use of it immediately.