It's the most wonderful time of the year. And by that I mean
it's the end of subscription processing time for the Sydney Theatre
Company as it heads into the 2012 season, of course! If you've been
to The Wharf in the last few months, you may have heard the pitter
patter of feet as the dedicated team of subscription processors
(known as 'Subbies') have been working hard allocating seats,
making a list of subscribers, checking it twice and sending out
tickets for plays both naughty and nice. The 2012 season is coming
to town...
Since September, myself and the other Subbies have been camped out
in the Archives room at STC and have slowly but surely worked our
way through the huge pile of forms sent in by patrons. Along with
their selection of plays and date preferences, occasionally we get
treated to some more specific customer requests that kept things
fresh in the office. The whole job often feels as much like play as
work: gabbing with patrons about the shows, hypothesising about who
would replace pregnant Jessica Marais as Eliza Dolittle and
giggling at a request from a patron that "their grandson would like
to join his parents for Sex With
Strangers".
All the while we were working with a great team, eating our weight
in biscuits every shift and spending Friday nights singing along to
the WSFM radio party mix.
In the recent weeks you may have even received a call from one of
us asking what you thought of the 2011 season… and you all had a
lot to say. We heard your opinions on it all: from the quality of
mints during interval, to the analysis of the actors'… ermmm…
"anatomy"… in Baal. I was even casually asked by a
patron how tall I thought she was by the sound of her voice.
But with tickets now sent out and the new season appearing just on
the horizon, like elves after Christmas the Subbies have called it
a day. So until next year we say farewell and enjoy the 2012 season
as much as we've enjoyed getting you ready for it.
Josh Forward (proud member of the Subbies team for the 2012 STC
season)
Feature: Subbies in the Silly Season
Date posted: 21 Dec 2011Author: STC