Saturday, December 11, 2010

A Really Cool Volunteer Position

       Last night I volunteered at the Red  Deer College Arts Center for front of house duties. A blogger commented that this sounded like a cool volunteer position as I had described a concert held there last night. I began thinking about this and yes it's a great fun position.

      The Red Deer College Arts Center was built about twenty years ago to function as a teaching facility for the Red Deer College theatre program and as a community theatre. It was a state of the art design and had all the bells and whistles. A very large entry was constructed and this was well appointed with a variety of excellent art. This entry also had room for the coat check and food and beverage service. In the house there are almost 550 seats. The front rows of seats can be removed so that it leaves room for an orchestra and orchrestra pit.  The stage is well equipped so that it can be adapted for many types of presentations. There is a tower over part of the stage so that various parts of sets can be dropped into place and then pulled up for storage. Behind the stage is a costume producing room with the necessary sewing equipment.

     About half of the productions are done by college classes both musical and theatre. Out of town performers can book the theatre. The local symphony plays all their performances in the arts center.

    So I am able to volunteer in a superb facility with pretty interesting performances. You'll never be bored as there is such a wide variety of shows you can watch . We don't see all performances, but you certainly see enough to be well satisfied. This position is a great balance for some of the heavier volunteer Since our community is about 100 000, there are a percentage of patrons that I know so it is an excellent time to meet and greet neighbors  and acquaintances.

    Front of house jobs are usher, ticket taker, program "hander outer", coat check and bar and food service. We are rotated so that we do a variety of jobs.

     When I stop and think about it, it really is a cool place to volunteer