Looking Inside the Box…Office

Hello Folks!  I’m Michael Dorn and I’m one of the Box Office Assistants.

First, let me start by saying that I have found great joy these last 2+ years working for The Rep and with all of my co-workers. I truly enjoying sharing my love of theater with the world and being able to offer the best seats I can to everyone that I talk to.  Plus, I get to see so much incredible theater and work with the most talented and amazing people!

A typical day in the in the Box Office for me begins at 9:00am, at which time I log-in all of the computers for the Box Office staff and print all of the internet sale tickets for the previous day. All of these tickets are packaged either for the mail or for will call, depending on how the patrons would like to receive their tickets. Soon after, all of the mail orders are brought in to the office and the whole staff divides them and we print all of those tickets or create subscriptions as needed.  Before we know it, 10:30am is here and we are live-the windows are opened and the phones go online!  This is when the real fun begins.  The entire staff is inundated with a queue of calls and patrons begin arriving at the windows.  With an amazing and powerful show like High, that is currently playing, it’s always a challenge to find “fabulous” seats for our patrons, but somehow we succeed! But sometimes (well really when the show is so successful) we only have limited seats and choices, because we are nearing a sell-out.  These are the times I feel the irony.  YES! WE ARE SELLING OUT!  But also, the best seats in the house are already gone.  My hint for best available seats…ORDER YOUR TICKETS EARLY!!!

The real fun is right before a show, beginning about an hour before curtain time.  We have 3 windows open: one for pre-sale and exchanges, one for the current show and will call, and one for rush tickets.  What are rush tickets you ask?  Well, I’m glad you asked!  30 minutes before all curtain times, we offer any unsold seats to seniors 65 and over and full time students at a drastically reduced price.  $15 for seniors and $10 for students!  That’s right!  What an amazing deal!  But with the deal comes a caveat:  there is no choice as to where you will sit.  The job of the person manning the “rush” window is to “dress” the house.  That is, filling in where we believe we need to make the house feel as full as possible and fill areas that have many empty seats.

Working in the Box Office, we consider ourselves to be “full service”.  We often get calls for Opera Theater, Stages, the Fox, the Muny and yes, even movie theaters! But you know, we always give the callers the contact info they are looking for, because we think of everyone as a potential patron and customer service is our highest mission. Although we cannot sell or exchange your tickets to Opera Theater.  Oh, yes, I know our performances are in the same theater…but, we are totally different companies.  I think of it like this:  Macy’s and Dillard’s are in the same building, but they are different companies.

As much joy as I get from working in the Box Office, there can also be stress sometimes!  Every once in a while, someone will feel that we have a less than friendly exchange and refund policy.  Only subscribers receive exchanges as a benefit to their subscriptions.  Even if a subscriber misses their performance we allow them to come to a future performance of the same show, so they don’t lose the value of their tickets.  So for our subscribers, we really do have a liberal exchange policy.  However, for our single ticket purchasers, we are much more strict.  We do tell all single ticket buyers that once they have purchased their tickets, there are no refunds or exchanges.  This really is common throughout the theater world, so remember, it really isn’t personal!  And sometimes, our patrons come to us to vent about their reaction to the content of a show or choice of shows for the season.  Remember, we didn’t choose the show, write the show, direct the show, or perform in the show.  We simply sell the tickets for the show.  But, as I mentioned earlier, we are a “full service” Box Office, so we listen and try to be empathetic to the wants, needs and reactions of our patrons.

So come see me at the Box Office for your next purchase - I’m happy to help!

Michael Dorn
Box Office Assistant

Comments: