Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Housekeeping?


By: Tamra

My experience this past weekend at the season opening concert for Civic Music Association can be summed up in two words; learning experience. Dealing with management teams, artists, volunteers, and other staff was a new experience that kept me on my toes.

The day started out rainy and cold, making everything a bit more challenging to begin with. My assignment of the morning was to hang around the auditorium and be at the beck and call of anyone doing any set up.

My supervisor had to run a few errands, which left me to answer any questions. After about ten minutes the artist’s manager asked me where the director was. I told him she had stepped out for a minute but that I was the intern in charge while she was away. He asked me where the “back line” was. I must have given him an unintentional blank stare because he chuckled and rephrased the question, “where are the drums” this I could understand. I was excited because this was a question I actually knew the answer to. I told him that our director had just spoken with the company providing the drums and his drums would be there within a few minutes.

Task one completed.

I sat around for another ten minutes while the drum company arrived and started setting up. The guy putting together the drums looked at me and asked if I was housekeeping. The artist’s manager immediately assured the drum guy that I was indeed housekeeping. I didn’t know many things that day but I did know that I was not housekeeping.

I introduced myself at the Civic Music Intern and that I could try to help him with anything that he needed. He then proceeded to ask me if I had a vacuum. I spent the next twenty minutes running around looking for a vacuum. My twenty minutes had been wasted; there was no vacuum in sight.

Task two failed.

The director finally returned and I was partly relieved she was back to handle all the questions and odd requests. I was partly disappointed that my time in charge had been so short. The rest of the day was a blur filled with many more odd tasks. When it was time to go home I couldn’t believe it was ten o’clock already.

I concluded that my first concert was a success because I had not personally caused any major problems and everyone seemed to enjoy the concert.

Concert one success!

4 comments:

Christine said...

I understand when you're talking about being confused when they referred to the "back line". I was given an email with the number of violins, violas and cellos in the youth orchestra and asked to set up the rehearsal. I must have looked dumbfounded because they sent someone over to help me out.

Doug L. said...

I know the feeling of wanting to be in charge but not knowing every answer. In fact, I'll be in that position tonight since my boss won't be able to make it, except I deal with 30-50yr old hockey players wanting to know why they don't get the star player on their roster....just gotta do the best with what you know and you'll be alright, haha even though I may not be the best to give advice.

Lauren Smith said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lauren S. said...

Isn't it a good feeling when you finish an event, even if you don't know the answer to every question or task asked of you? It can be pretty stressful but I keep telling myself it's great experience!