They go almost unnoticed. They are, however, essential players in the cultural milieu. The duty offers a series of portraits of shadow trades, through the confidences of professionals who practice them or have already practiced them. Today: theater openers.
Montreal had still not put on its white coat that Sunday, and many spectators were expected at the Maisonneuve Theater at Place des Arts to December, iconic holiday production alongside Nutcracker.
However, just before the start of the performance, a few rows of seats were very empty. One of the managers of the company Québec Issime then went on stage to ask the audience to show a little patience: several spectators who had come from outside Montreal by bus were caught in the traffic jams caused by COP15, which took place at the Palais des Congrès. Fifteen minutes later, in a good mood, the curtain rose.
The duty, present that day, was able to attend another spectacle: the ballet of ushers responsible for guiding people, some of whom were visibly setting foot for the first time in this cultural complex, and in a certain haste. We even had to offer a seat in another section to a spectator who had just discovered that the balcony was causing him horrible vertigo.
These are just a few of the realities of a job that some equate to that of a flight attendant. Failing to serve meals, the openers would limit themselves to checking your ticket with a dazzling smile, it is believed, to then attend a show, quietly and free of charge.
Welcome everyone
Depending on the size of the venue, the type of performance and the level of intoxication of the spectators, the evening can be just as unpredictable in the room as on the stage. The openers must ensure that it runs smoothly, from start to finish, avoiding potential bottlenecks, for example, including in front of the escalators, which are very present in the largest halls of Place des Arts.
“When they are all open, 5,000 spectators converge at the same time,” says François Le Madeleine, bar and reception supervisor at Place des Arts since 1992. The parking lot will be filled to capacity, the locker rooms will be crowded in winter, not to mention the people who arrive at the last minute. These realities may be similar to traffic management, but for “ the show go on », it is still necessary that those who attend are well settled, and happy to be there!
Especially since a place like Place des Arts, with its eclectic programming, sometimes represents a veritable social mosaic. Florence Gagnon, who has been working there since 2021, is always amazed by the colorful character of the audiences, she who quickly learned to adjust “to the energy that the public gives us”. She also notes the great emotion of several spectators “to return to Place des Arts after sometimes more than two years because of the pandemic, reassured to see that the places have not changed and that they are still welcome there” .
François Le Madeleine also knows that the energy of the public varies according to the show proposed. He sees it every night, according to the stars on the bill, whether it’s Steve Hackett, ex-guitarist of the group Genesis (“I expect the spectators to drink more beer than those of the ‘opera!”), or Michel Louvain, just before the pandemic (“Nearly 150 people with reduced mobility needed help”).
When the show is everywhere
While it’s true that openers often have a lot to say about the shows they loved, they’re just as talkative about the less funny sides of that job, like certain audience behaviors, mirroring the times when they practiced this profession.
Sylvie Deslauriers, press officer now retired, and Guillaume Bourgault-Côté, head of the magazine’s political office News after several years at Homework, were openers, respectively in the 1980s (at the St-Denis theater) and at the turn of the 2000s (at the Manoir du Lac-Delage theater, near Quebec City, then at the TNM). Both are inexhaustible, and generous in anecdotes, on what they learned about themselves… and about others.
I saw sick people throw up on other spectators and a lady pass out, to finally learn that she had donated blood before going to the theater…
Going from a summer theater to an institutional theater was not so difficult for Guillaume Bourgault-Côté, even if the atmosphere of the former was much more relaxed. At the TNM, the future journalist quickly knew how to separate the occasional spectators from the subscribers, “a significant proportion of the room”, and remembers with happiness his discussions during the intermissions. “Things may have changed in the era of smart phones, but it was not uncommon then for seven or eight spectators to come and share their impressions with me. »
The ushers are also sentries, and some must stay in the room for the duration of the performance to exercise vigilance. And so see the same piece night after night. Guillaume Bourgault-Côté prefers to conceal the title of the most boring (“It happened to me to fall asleep”), but he is full of praise for the performance of Pierre Lebeau in The Odyssey, a show by Dominic Champagne and Alexis Martin that marked the history of the TNM (“At the end, each time, I felt a great shiver that left the stage to go into the room”).
Obviously, the trivial rubs shoulders with the sublime in cultural venues, and the TNM is no exception. “I saw sick people throwing up on other spectators, remembers Guillaume Bourgault-Côté, and a lady fainting, to finally learn that she had donated blood before going to the theater…” Sylvie Deslauriers did not experience the same incidents, but she can testify to the sometimes unpredictable character of spectators and artists, Miles Davis for example.
“His performance was to start quite late, around 10 p.m., remembers the one who was long associated with the cinema world. We learned that he was at the airport, determined to stay there if we didn’t meet his demands. The manager of the hall asked the spectators to wait outside. Without telling anyone, Miles Davis finally went on stage, the rumor spread around the theater, and we lost control. All we could do is settle down! Conversely, during a performance by Jamaican musicians, the audience was far from hysterical. “I worked on the balcony, and everyone, about 300 people, took a lot of things! It wasn’t allowed, but again my manager told me to let it go. Some spectators offered me a firecracker, but it was not necessary, it smoked so much…”
For Sylvie Deslauriers and Guillaume Bourgault-Côté, the job of route setter was a happy parenthesis in their student life, but they also learned a lot, including the importance of camaraderie in front of audiences, let’s say, more capricious. “It was very useful to me when I started out as a press officer,” says Sylvie Deslauriers. I have never hesitated to defend less confident colleagues, particularly women, in front of unpleasant spectators. No matter what job you do, you have to be respected and confront — politely — those who abuse their status. Wherever I go, to the show or to the restaurant, even today, I am sensitive to the way I am received: it is part of the experience. »