The Bach Festival is in town again — it’s an annual spree of lovely classical entertainment presented in small venues, mostly very beautiful churches. As usual, I can’t afford to pay to amuse myself or improve my (probably impregnable) mind, so if I get to one, that’s awesome, but usually…not so much luck.
However, one of my choir friends sent out an email asking if anyone would like to usher for a performance.
Well! Dang. I used to usher for the Arizona Theater Company. It was a great experience…and a way to see a play for free. Downtown Phoenix is a bit of a headache to navigate, though. I most certainly can’t afford to park there. And they moved their volunteers’ parking to a lot that was horribly difficult to find and hard to get into because of all the one-way streets and the construction. So I gave up.
And truth to tell, after all these years (those happenings occurred while I was still working, back in another geologic era!) I had forgotten about it.
Naturally, when she brought it up I jumped to volunteer. And happy day, got accepted for an afternoon performance. 🙂
This really is a fun way to make yourself useful — and on the side, get to see performances you wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend. The trick is to find companies that accept volunteers as ushers. It’s not at all a difficult job: you have to learn the layout of the house. Then you just hand out programs and help people find their seats. And be nice to the peeps, of course.