today Tuesday February 22, 2011

T4

today Tuesday February 22, 2011

T5

arts
Chris Chuah, Esplanade usher

arts
The house of usher
>> Continued from T2 shared with us earlier that day, have all gone through around 30 hours of training to deal with life-and-death situations like fire emergencies, drunk patrons, and trigger-happy camera-toting tourists. They know first aid too, and we wouldnt be surprised if they can do cartwheels while juggling balls of fire. So, in the spirit of investigative journalism, we prepared a simple surprise to see exactly how on-the-ball the ushers were. It involved planting a colleague who accidentally misplaced her ticket and had no way of contacting her friend who was already inside. After a brief back-and-forth between a young usher and Ramon, our colleague was allowed to temporarily go in under the conditions that she find her friend and return her temporary ticket to the ushers. The verdict? (Ramon) was very reassuring and very cool about it. Im very impressed because they were calm and gave you the benefit of the doubt. If this really happened to me, Id be too distressed if someone didnt let me in. But they handled it well and made me feel pretty good, said our little actress. It turned out we didnt need to fake a situation. A young man on crutches showed up and was promptly escorted all the way to his seat (even if he looked more than capable of doing so himself) and a few women tried to get in with NSF concession tickets (and were politely asked to top up the difference because they were obviously not men). But even if there were no major incidents involving screaming, drunken patrons that night, it has happened before. with two irate and drunk patrons who werent happy that the opening act for an international band was taking too long. They tore their tickets and threw it at us, she said. And then there is the more common, but no less challenging, task of stopping patrons from taking photos inside a venue a no-no especially for classical shows. Its quite a challenge, especially if the patron is somewhere in the middle of a row, said Tan. (Ironically, our colleagues pleasant experience with the ushers outside was tempered inside by a female usher who consistently blocked her view during the show as she went about her job as an overeager member of the camera police.) That said, patron habits have changed over the years. Previously, complaints would come from latecomers who got locked out. These days, more feedback comes from patrons who complain about these latecomers disturbing the show, said Syahan. For indie music gigs like Blonde Redheads, however, the admission policy is more relaxed. Latecomers still trickled in half an hour into the concert, but Chuah and the team were not taking it easy they had to set up the foyer area for a post-show autograph signing session. We asked Chuah why he, a bonda fide jazz lover (with a CD collection of about 1,000), would want to work at an event that was obviously not jazz. To be honest, many times, its like a discovery. I may not know very much of this artist or group but this allows one to be exposed to more artists. And I checked them out on YouTube I think theyre pretty cool, he said, before hastily adding that while there may be certain perks to ushering (Ramon, for one, was recently able to sit and watch a rehearsal by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra), theyre not there for the freebies but to make the show enjoyable for the patrons. We may do this day in and day out, but for a patron, this could be the first time theyre coming to the Esplanade, said Chuah. up at exactly midnight. But just as the ushers were the first on the scene, they were the last to leave as they packed the concert hall. There was one incident during the signing session that left an impression on us. An excitable fan lingering in front of the bands table accidentally dropped his Polaroid camera, which smashed to pieces. The first two people to react were Ramon and Tan, who immediately stooped down to pick up the pieces. This in a city where one pretends to sleep instead of giving up an MRT seat to a pregnant lady. Earlier that day, when we asked what is it that ushers really do, Ramon gave a vague answer: We have ushers in the venues to make sure patrons have a good experience when they come to a performance. After seeing them in action, it did not seem as vague anymore. Grizzled usher vet Chuah may have been to 800 performances, but he totally forgot to mention one show: That of his and his colleagues unheralded performance night after night.

He said We have ushers in the venues to make sure patrons have a good experience when they come to a performance. Paolo Ramon

Its a wrap

Photo: Wee Teck Hian

Thank you for coming

Chuah had once encountered an angry patron who was late for a classical performance which has a strict no latecomers policy. He banged the side of a door. He couldnt accept the explanation and was very upset. A couple of years back, Syahan dealt

At 11pm, the gig was over and a long queue had formed beside the autograph table. Chuah and all the ushers were back in action to make sure no photos were taken during the session and to hand out flyers for signing purposes. Because the band had not limited the number of autographs they were signing, it could spell a really long night. Its not that bad, Tan said, citing how during the recent Kit Chan concert, the queue had snaked all the way around. Some bands have a limit. Its turning away people thats hard. In the end, the entire thing wrapped

Longtime usher Chris Chuah directing Blonde Redhead concert-goers to their seats.

Photo: Esplanade