Performance Report

If any of you are familiar with theatre, you know that for each show, there is a performance report that recounts that night's performance, including the technical aspects of it, changes that need to be made, basically anything that happens during the show, good and the bad, to report back to all those involved.

My good friend Danny sent me the latest performance report for the show that is currently going on at the theater I used to work at. Please note the comments under 'Audience' and 'Performance' Notes.

I miss this place.

PERFORMANCE REPORT

DATE: Thursday, September 24, 2009

PERFORMANCE # 19

HALF HOUR	7:00
ACT I UP	7:39
ACT I DOWN	8:59
ACT I TOTAL	1 hour, 20 minutes
INTERMISSION UP	8:59
INTERMISSION DOWN	9:15
INTERMISSION TOTAL	16 minutes
ACT II UP	9:15
ACT II DOWN	10:19
ACT II TOTAL	1 hour, 4 minutes
TOTAL RUN TIME	2 hour, 24 minutes
TOTAL ELASPED TIME	2 hour, 40 minutes

AUDIENCE

House Count: 197

Great crowd tonight. We had a group from State College with us tonight. The crowd was rather responsive throughout and just fell in love with the Gangsters. There were a great deal of cheers at the end and very strong applause.

During the finale of Act One, Peter's whip got stuck in his cape. He pulled it out of the cape and the whip hit our wheelchair patron in the face. The wheelchair patron seemed jovial throughout Act Two, so I don't think it bothered him.

INJURIES:

NOTHING TO REPORT.

PERFORMANCE NOTES:

Good pacing again tonight but a couple moments of sloppiness and lethargy. Amelia pushed her chair at a strange angle during the first dressing room scene which caused it to fall off the platform and she ended up on her backside. She ad libbed a bit and received lots of applause as a result (she is fine; no injury). The other sloppy moment came from Peter (see Audience Notes). There are still some moments where pauses could be shortened. I have a couple of notes to give to Peter tomorrow.

Life in a Box

After working in a box office at a theatre for about 5 years, there certainly has been no shortage of crazy patrons, ridiculous questions, and our barely sufficient answers. And given all of the insane things I've had to deal with over the years, looking back, I would not trade these experiences for anything in the world.

That includes dealing with Sunday matinees, where the entire audience consisted of 90 year old Jewish ladies who demanded that they each have a hearing device and that their walkers be brought to them before anyone else. And of course I can't leave out the patron whose tickets I couldn't find (BECAUSE HE DIDN'T HAVE ANY RESERVED), and when I tried to calm him down, he yelled at me in front of the entire lobby and said "DON'T CALL ME SIR!"

But like I said, I definitely had plenty more memorable times at the Lyric, and would go through more patronizing and condescending confrontations just to work there again.

Enough of the sentimental stuff. My good friend and former Box Office Manager, Kate, introduced me, as well as the rest of her Facebook friends, to a little webisode series called "Jack in a Box." The main character of the series is Jack, an out of work actor who took on the risky task of working in a box office. Its slogan says "He used to love theatre...until he sold tickets for it..." pretty much sums it up. If you've worked in a box office, you'll relate to EVERYTHING he says, and if you haven't, you'll realize the kind of shenanigans we have to go through all the time.

His latest episode, "The Student," is by far my favorite, as I have had to deal with A LOT of this type of person. It's hard for me to turn down the 80 year old husband and wife couple with "Lifelong Learner" IDs from Bunker Hill Community College.

Enjoy! (And if you like it, watch it from the first episode, which is just as hilarious!)

PS: It may seem like I am, but I'm not getting paid for this :)