Who loves their job? I love my job! I mean, I really love my job! I have the night off tonight and I'm sitting here wishing there was some way I could make it in, because I absolutely love what I do, I work with amazing, wonderful people, and I really, strongly, believe in the theatre we support. Theatres are often regarded as strange, otherwordly places, not only for the magic that occurs on the stage, but for their ghosts as well. Every respectable theatre with any kind of history has got to have a few ghosts. A young actor on the theatre's call center's team was telling me last night about the tradition of the ghost light - a single light left on the stage, for the ghosts, so that the theatre is never truly dark. And I thought, regardless of whether or not you actually believe in any literal "ghosts" in the house, what a wonderful tradition! What a wonderful, loving gesture of respect! Geva is no exception; we have our share of ghosts. From Sarah, who haunts the downstairs ladies room and won't allow anything negative to be said about Geva's annual production of A Christmas Carol, to the phantom stagehand on the mainstage's right wing, there is plenty of activity in the house to touch the imagination even when there's no production running on the stage. But I think Geva's got another "ghost" they don't tell you about on the hallowe'en ghost walk, and that spirit is love. Do any of you understand the wonderful human energy that goes into a theatrical production? I don't know who else here has been there. I studied theatrical design before getting married, and have worked as a stagehand for Geva's annual Christmas production, and am struck with wonder at the effort, the anxiety, the joy, the frustration, the anticipation, the awe that goes into a production - from the star performer to the smallest audience member, from the directors and production managers to the stagehands and they guys in the box office, and yes, even the telemarketers - and lingers after the lights go down. In Geva's case, all this energy seems to have mingled and combined and ultimately distilled itself as real, everyday love, and I swear you can feel it. It's in the air in the lobby and the floorboards of the stage and the walls in the back stairwell. It strikes me every time I come into work - yeah the box office makes decisons we in the call center sometimes don't like and the stage manager may get stressed and theatre people in general are neurotic - but in a way, that's part of it. It's kind of like when my kids drive me nuts: the love is worth it all. I'm one of the best callers on our team. I was around last season, so that's probably why. But I think another reason why I do well in ticket sales is because when I tell a customer that the plays are wonderful and the performers are amazing and the flex tickets really are a great deal, it's because I know they are. I mean it when I tell a customer that I love Geva, and I know the customers mean it when they tell us the same thing too. I've been trying to leave Rochester for some time now. There's a lot of pain for me here, and few opportunities. But I seem to keep getting "stuck" here, and maybe that's because I've been leaving in resentment and pain, rather with love. So yesterday as I was going up the stairs to the call center in the mezzanine, and feeling the love in the walls, I thought it would bear mentioning. Rochester holds a lot of pain for me, but there's love here for me too, and a lot of that is felt at Geva. I feel truly blessed.
Does it seem inconsistent to anyone else to use the Commonwealth spelling of "theatre" along with the American spelling of "center"?
in the states, that spelling is generally used to differentiate a theatrical playhouse from a movie theater. i'm really sorry to hear that that little detail is all that struck you from reading the post.
And yet there's no shortage of movie theatres that use that spelling. A movie theatre can be differentiated from a theatrical playhouse with the term "cinema," but "theatre" itself does nothing to distinguish one from the other. It got you a reply, didn't it?
Theatres with ghosts are the best...our high school auditorium had two. Theatre is the funnest thing in the world...it's like pretending for big kids...haha. God, I just wish there were more jobs out there in the field.
I haven't been there in years. I think the last time I went was when I was a senior in high school, and that was back in '99. My parents go to Geva quite often during the holiday season, though. I know the theatre has had a lot of remodeling done in the past 10 years or so, but that sort of takes away the unique ambience of the theatre setting. I prefer those really old theatre houses that have remained as they always were, never being remodeled or refurbished. I can't think of any here in the ROC, but they are around.
