Week 7:
Family Time and Scheduling Woes

July 10, 2018

This week started off with a bang- it was the 4th of July! Sadly, due to the recent forest fires near Creede, we were under a fireworks ban, so it wasn’t festive in the same way that I’m used to. However, the company- and the town- still celebrated! The week surrounding the 4th of July is definitely the busiest time of the season for CRT. We had five sold-out shows in a row, and some shows had been sold out for a week. It definitely made things very busy in Front of House, but I’ll take that kind of busy over quarter-sold shows any day! The town was full of visitors this week, to the point that I had to dodge around groups of people just to get in the doors of the theatre. We had a parade down Main Street to celebrate the 4th, as well as food trucks filling the grocery store parking lot selling funnel cakes, ribs, soda, and much more. I saw one tent set up that was just selling cowboy hats! CRT celebrated by having a cookout at the home of our production manager, Rick. I love these company events- they’re a good chance to relax, talk to people from different departments, and generally enjoy the company of fun and interesting people.

This week my family came to visit me! My sister, Nico, and their partner Kaden drove all the way from Seattle to see me, while my parents flew out from Madison, WI to visit. I’ve been looking forward to this visit for a while now, and I’m so glad they had the opportunity to come out and see me! Once my sister arrived on the 5th, this week has pretty much been all about family. I was able to show my family where I live, where I work, where to eat, and basically explain to them how cool of a small town Creede is, and why CRT is such a good place to work at.

I also introduced them to my friends and coworkers (especially in Front of House) and showed them where the best food is (Arp’s, although there are lots of good places in town). My parents saw every show that we have up, including Boomtown, and loved them all. I think it’s a sign of the quality of CRT that my parents consistently liked every show, and it was really good to hear about CRT from an outside perspective. Being able to listen to what the patron experience is actually like is a good way for me to learn how to improve the patron experience in my day-to-day work life.

The last four days this week, I’ve been scheduled to work from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm cleaning the theater in preparation for a show, and 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm working will call. I like this shift- I like working will call and giving people their tickets- but I haven’t been scheduled for any other time to work. Usually, that means that I have to text Graham and see if he wants me to work development that day. I’m perfectly fine with working, I just keep getting annoyed that I have to be the one to check on when my work hours are. Earlier in the season, I was explicitly scheduled for development hours, but now I keep having to ask if I’m scheduled or not. And what about days when I start a shift in the afternoon? Should I always ask if I should come in in the morning? The inconsistency is a little frustrating for me.

I like being able to work on lots of different things, but there are definitely downsides to working in two departments. My major complaint about working front of house relates to this as well- we never get our schedules until the night before, sometimes as late as 10 pm. I know that my manager is very busy and doing the best that she can, but it’s a lot harder to plan when I have no idea what my schedule will be two days from now. However, this process is definitely teaching me to be assertive about scheduling and to take the initiative when I feel like I should be doing something, even if no one has told me to do it.