Eye-opener
Interview
Volunteer Participation
Experience
Front stage
Before the Show
The Outreach and Development Associate, Nico gave us a tour of front stage at the Metropolitan Hall. First, she showed us the front door, where the audience enters the theater. The volunteers who were assigned this task to hand out the DMs, and welcome the audience kindly and politely. The DM was drama synopsis, DM of the new show, DM of drama class, questionnaire, etc. Moreover, we had another important task which was make the audience happy.
We directed the audience arrived early for the show to the souvenir area, so they could shop around. IfKids Theater Company also set up a souvenir area. This area sold all kinds of souvenirs of the show - the Starry Garden. The volunteers introduced the souvenirs to the audience, like magic bean, story books, and original sound track, etc.
Some of the audience had 10 percents off or 20 percents discount. The staffs directed the clients to the VIP area to apply the VIP membership. The volunteer needed to key in the information of client at the VIP area. We also explained the rights and benefits of the VIP members, such as 10 or 20 percents off for the souvenirs, free file folderand special discount and information for new shows.
There was an area where they advertise the next show beside the VIP area. The volunteers carried the big advertisement board of the next show, introduced new shows to the audiences, and attracted them to buy the ticket of the new shows.
After the Show
After show, audience might have some suggestions for the drama, and IfKids Theater Company needed the advices to improve in order to have better shows. Some volunteers handed out and collected the questionnaire, and gave a pair of socks to the audience who filled out the questionnaire. The staffs told us to smile when we handed out the questionnaire. When we collected the questionnaire, we should remember to say thank you. We thanked for the audience who spent the time to fill out the questionnaire. Also, we needed to give the socks to the audience as the gift for filling out the questionnaire. We judged the age of children to give out different size of the socks.
Moreover, some of the audience would like to take photos with the actors and actresses. We helped the staffs to set up an area for photo taking, at the same time, we also had to control the number of people get into this area.
From this experience, we learned that a successful show might not just the performance of the actors and actresses. There are many elements to achieve a “perfect performance”, but most important element is the staffs who help the clients to complete their requirement carefully.