SEP
15

Volunteers.  Finding and Keeping ’Em

By Flip Kobler 

Flip Kobler began his performing career as an actor before morphing into a writer.  Flip and his wife, Cindy Marcus, have written for Disney and now run Showdown Stage Company and Showdown Theater Academy in Valencia, California.  Pioneer Drama Service is pleased to offer several plays and musicals by this dynamic duo.   

It takes a village.  Trite, but true.  If no man is an island, then no show is a peninsula.  Even a one-man show can’t operate solo.  Someone has to work lights and sound.  Someone has to run the house, take tickets, give out programs...  You see where I’m going here.

Any production needs help.  And unless you’re independently wealthy, that help comes in the form of volunteers.  But where do you find ’em, how do you use ’em, and most importantly, how do ya keep ’em?

Finding Volunteers

The most obvious place to recruit volunteers is from your cast and crew.  Trouble is, they’re often too busy rehearsing to do all the other set, costume, painting, props, tickets, and publicity tasks, as well as the bajillion and seven other things that need doing, to actually do that need-doing thing.

Another problem, especially with a young cast, is what we call the Bart syndrome.  In an early episode of The Simpsons, Bart wants to help make Thanksgiving dinner.  Marge says, “Sure, can you do the cranberry sauce?”  No problem-o!  Except by the time he asks where is the sauce, how do I use the can opener, which dish, where’s the spoon, how do you scoop, it’s just easier for poor overworked Marge to do it herself.

I often joke that I built the set today.  I could have done it in six hours, but it took twelve ’cause I had help.  Sound familiar?

So let’s look outside the cast and crew.  Are there other students not in the drama program?  Can you recruit the choir kids?  The football team?  The art students?  Can you work a deal with other department heads?  If you help us build our sets, we’ll be happy to run house and concessions at your next concert or game.

If that doesn’t work, look beyond the school.  We’ve often used help from the local college.  University or community, they’re a great resource, especially if you can strike a deal to give college credit, or even extra credit for the time they put into helping you.

Another great resource is parents.  Duh, right?  Parents of your cast and crew are often eager to help.  They’re a great place to farm out the work that needs to be done.  Costumes, set or prop construction, publicity, tickets, etc.  We’ll talk about how to best use their talents and enthusiasm in the next section, but we couldn’t do our shows without our Supermoms and Superdads.

Have you considered the retired community?  A local 55-and-over complex?  The VFW?  American Legion?  There are lots of active seniors out there looking to be even active-er.  They’d love a place to put their talents and skills to use.  And as a bonus, the more outside people who work on your show, the more tickets you sell because they love to bring their family and friends to show off the program they’re supporting.

We worked at a theater in Florida that already had a fabulous volunteer system in place.  The community theater did seven shows a year.  They struck after the final Sunday matinee.  On Monday morn, a group of retired guys came in and built the set for the next show over the next three days.  Thursday morning a group of retired gals zipped in to paint the set.  In less than a week the entire set for the next show was up and curtain-ready.  They worked like a well-oiled machine, and these seniors knew their stuff!

Lastly, we’d like to suggest your local church, synagogue, or temple.  We’ve done a lot of church productions and have discovered the one thing churches have in abundance is man-power.  Talk to the local clergy, tell them what you need and see if they’d be willing to put it in Sunday’s program or make an announcement from the pulpit.  Congregations and youth groups are often excited to help out in the community.  Plus, it’s another resource for selling those all-important tickets.

Empowering Volunteers

Now that you’ve got ’em, how do you use ’em?  We’ve discovered that people love giving their time, but hate wasting it.  So when worktime rolls around, be prepared and scheduled.

If you can, farm out jobs to parents who can work on their own time.  Tell a mom “I need this costume done by Friday please.”  That will let her work at home when she has the time, whether it’s evenings, insomnia at 3 a.m., or while the baby takes a nap.  Can you ask dads, uncles, or grandpas to build your flats or benches at home?  They may not be able to come to the school to build on Saturday when the big workforce is scheduled, but if they have a specific task and timeline, you’ll be pleasantly surprised what can be accomplished.

If you do have a big on-site workday, be sure to have clear goals prepared and the needed materials on-hand.  “Today, our goal is to get the walls up.”  Or, “Today we want all the outside background flats painted.”  Setting ambitious yet attainable goals gives people a drive and sense of accomplishment.  But ask people to come in for three hours on a Saturday morning without clear plans, and they’ll often spend it drinking coffee and standing around wondering what to do.  Ask for goals, not hours.

Keep in mind that volunteers are not just here as free labor.  They’re here out of love and devotion and want some input into the final show.  If you ask a mom to make a lion costume, let her make it the way she wants.  Let her feel empowered and creative.  If you ask a dad to build a bookcase, you might have to live with the bookcase he built, not the one you imagined.

You may even come to a place where you have to choose between making the volunteers happy and getting the exact show you dreamed about.  Remember, dreams are free, volunteers are hard to come by.

Keeping volunteers

The easiest way to keep volunteers is to let them be part of the process.  Make them feel important, needed, and appreciated.

We already talked about giving them some creative freedom and input.  Give as much as you can without hurting the show.  People will come back if their creative urges are given an outlet.

Give them credit.  Be sure to list the volunteers in the program, or even on a special board in the lobby.  Everyone wants to be acknowledged for their hard work.  Sing their praises via pictures on Facebook and other social media.  We often have a collage board in the lobby during the final production.  You know the kind of thing — pictures of the set and costumes in progress, photos of the volunteers working.  The audience loves to see the “work in progress.”

If they’ve come from the church, let the clergy know and if possible mention them during the service.  If they’re from the college, a card or letter to their professor will go a long way to having them come back, next time with friends.

If you do a curtain speech before or after the show, don’t forget to mention the people who helped make the show happen.  You don’t have to mention everyone by name, but give credit where it’s due.

However you go about it, make sure you show your appreciation.  Remember that theater in Florida with the retired volunteers?  Twice a year the theater throws a volunteer appreciation night of a black-tie catered dinner in the lobby.  They give out silly awards like, “best non-burning fireplace,” and “best period costume using Velcro,” and the seniors absolutely love it!

It’s fun and stupid, but it makes people feel valued.  And at the end of the day that’s what it’s really about, isn’t it?  All of us want to feel like we matter.  That we contribute.  So don’t be stingy with the appreciation.

You got this.  You rock.  Now get out there and break some legs.