Orlando Shakes Guild takes final bow as theater introduces ambassadors
Friendly faces still greet you at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, show you to your seats and serve you in the gift shop, but behind the scenes Orlando Shakes has changed its volunteer program. The longtime Orlando Shakes Guild, which had been supporting the theater company since its very beginnings, has shut down. In its place: a new Ambassadors program, run by Orlando Shakes.
“Our approach is we are bringing all our volunteers under one umbrella,” said Orlando Shakes managing director Douglas Love-Ramos. “Nothing is changing in our level of volunteer support.”
But change rarely comes easily, and some were dismayed by the end of the Guild; in recent days former members have told me they were “sad” or “angry” over the organization’s end.
“It did make people upset for a period of time,” said Lee Anne Fein, the final president of the Guild. “It was a lot of change in a little bit of time.”
The Guild was founded in 1988, even before the official incorporation of “Orlando Shakespeare Festival,” the original name of Orlando Shakes. Its first fundraiser took place that year at Enzian Theater in Maitland, and raising money was its primary mission.
“It helped them over the rough spots and took up the slack when they were barely hanging on,” Fein said of the Guild’s aid to the organization. “We made a huge contribution, and I think we are a big part of the reason they stayed viable through the lean years. We should be proud of the fact we were able to do that.”
Among the Guild’s notable fundraisers: A 1994 Renaissance Faire in Mead Gardens, complete with madrigal singers, a bagpiper, sports, theater and performers from Medieval Times.
Love-Ramos saluted the volunteers’ work, remembering their aid to patrons coming to productions at the amphitheater at Lake Eola Park in the early days.
“The Guild started out at the lake, ushering and selling water bottles,” he said.
After the theater company moved into the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, Guild volunteers ran the gift shop and concession stand.
But more recently, the
theater changed direction with its concessions.
“We have worked to upgrade what we’re selling at the bar,” Love-Ramos said. The Guild volunteers have been replaced by professional bartenders, who now serve up cocktails
among other libations.
“It was never the intention of the Guild to end, but the atmosphere and changes in the theater made it inevitable,” said Fein, who first attended an Orlando Shakes production nearly 30 years ago. She
estimated that between 30 and 40 percent of the Guild members transferred to the new ambassador volunteer program. She’s one of them.
“I love that theater and I’m still happy to volunteer,”
she said. “Hopefully, more and more Guild people will come back.”
She praised David Monge, patron-services manager, for his coordination of the ambassadors volunteer program and said she was pleased with the additional types of opportunities available.
“David has done a great job in the transition,” she said. “He is a very warm and caring person.”
Beyond the gift shop, still being managed by former Guild member Merrill Sinert, ambassadors can usher, greet patrons, scan tickets, work in costuming or help in the scenic shop — where Fein particularly likes to work.
She acknowledged that older Guild members can find challenges in the more physically demanding tasks, but said theater staff was helpful in making accommodations and finding suitable roles for the ambassadors.
In May, the theater hosted a farewell party for the Guild, with artistic director Jim Helsinger — who has worked at the theater nearly as long as the Guild has been around — in attendance.
“We wanted to honor the Guild’s service,” Love-Ramos said of the event.
Fein said the: “wonderful party” was fun, but emotional too, as members bade farewell to an organization many of them had served for decades.
“Members were sad to see it go,” she said, adding she plans to keep pushing former Guild members to give the ambassadors program a try.
“I have worked really hard to help members of the Guild accept this,” she said. “They can still volunteer, and the people who work in the theater have done a good job in getting the ambassador program off the ground. They are committed to the volunteers, and that’s important.”
For more information on volunteering with Orlando Shakes, go to orlandoshakes. org/about-us/volunteers.