Winter 2013 Usher Schedules and Some Changes

Hello everyone!

The 2013 Winter Usher Schedules are now in progress.  If you have not yet submitted your sign-up form, now is the time to do it.  Schedules will be sent to ushers who have attended training on Friday sometime before 5pm.  Ushers who have not yet attended training will receive their schedules when they arrive at the training session in February.

Usher Seating & Post Changes
Richard Russell and I have met to discuss usher seating after receiving feedback from several of you.  We have decided to change the policy.  This change will be in Usher Handbook that is distributed in February and in the online copy that is posted on this blog.

The new policy:

There will be ten tickets set aside for Ushers at each performance.  Ushers who do not receive tickets may sit after the first intermission as long as:

• the House Manager has given permission for Ushers to sit

• those seats are in the rear of the theater (behind row O)

• those seats are on the aisle

• you do not have to step past any seated patrons to get to the available seats

• and those seats are not in a box

Ushers may also sit in available aisle seats in the balcony as long as those seats are not in the Loge/Mezzanine section.

If at any time a ticketed patron or Sarasota Opera staff member asks an Usher to surrender their seat, the Usher must do so.

In addition to the seating changes, we will be moving the two Usher posts that were in the Loge/Mezzanine section to the balcony lobby left and right stairs.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

~Scott