Leadership / 04.24.24
My First Job in Ticketing — Part 2
Christine Payne
Last week, we shared the origin stories of seven professionals who found their way to ticketing in different ways. Roger Tomlinson was planning a career in teaching but instead began working at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, in the U.K.'s industrial “Potteries” area. A family connection helped Robert Bennett get his start in ticketing at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans. Amy Pelzl took a night job with Ticketmaster of Houston to supplement her full-time secretarial work. Crystal Clinton transitioned from working on the accounting system that served the Opryland USA theme park to ticketing. And the list goes on.
Ticketing found all of us in different ways. Each journey is unique except for where it led — to a wonderful profession and careers creating memories through live event and entertainment experiences.
In this installment of our series on first jobs in ticketing, we move to the 1990s and some incredible professionals who began their journeys then.
Larry Frievalt
Larry Frievalt's path to a fulfilling career in ticketing began in 1990. At the time, he was working towards his Bachelor of Business Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His studies included an internship, and the rest is history.
“I told them I wanted to work in not-for-profit,” Frievalt says. “The only position they could find was working in a box office for the [University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s] Great Artist Series.”
That is where Frievalt’s story began. For the past two decades, he has been the Ticketing/Patron Services Manager at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, Illinois. Frievalt manages ticketing for the venue, with over 70 events, 77,000 seats and $2.7 million in sales annually. He has also had other stops along the way, including roles at Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, Potawatomi Bingo Casino and Ticketmaster, among others.
“My fondest memory of working for the Great Artist Series was presenting all the culturally diverse events that guests would have never seen,” Frievalt recalls. “We featured acts such as Native American Dance Theatre, folk music ensemble Inti-Illimani, Mummenschanz, and premiered STOMP! just before they performed on Lettermen and became a worldwide phenomenon.”
Christy Grantham
In 1990, Christy Grantham worked at the music retail store Record Bar as a college student. While Grantham’s location doubled as a Ticketmaster outlet, ticketing “didn't stick” for her until 1999.
“We were an hour away from the closest venue, so we didn't do a ton of ticket sales there,” she says. “My first actual, honest-to-goodness ticketing job was in 1999 at Kenan Auditorium on the UNCW (University of North Carolina Wilmington) campus.”
Grantham explains, “I was a part-time backstage technician, and the venue director approached me to see if I would be interested in working in the box office. I said, ‘Sure!’ and ended up staying for over 15 years.”
Today, Grantham is Director of Ticketing for The Wilson Center at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington. She has been with the performing arts center since it opened in 2015. She continues to have many happy moments with her current organization but still remembers where it all began. What is her fondest memory from that first job?
“Mostly the folks I worked with,” she says. “But there are so many memories, and it's crazy to think how far we've come technologically in a relatively short time.”
Grantham adds, “I really didn't think I would take to [ticketing] like I did. I thought a 'desk job' would be the death of me. It still might after all, but it will take a lot longer than I thought!”
Grantham at Kenan Auditorium on Nov. 11, 2011, at 11:11 a.m. This photo was taken as part of a Facebook challenge that asked, "What are you doing at 11/11/11 11:11?" Grantham’s response, referencing Animaniacs, was, “Same thing we do every day, Pinky! Try to take over the (ticketing) world!"
Jo Michel
Now, we move from North Carolina to Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Jo Michel got her start there in 1990.
“My first role was as Box Office and Front of House Coordinator at Hunter Valley Theatre Company (HVTC) … I worked there from 1990 to 1995,” Michel shares. “[It] was a regional theatre company that had one venue, the Playhouse, of approximately 200 seats. The company curated a subscription season of six plays per year and the venue was hired to community groups outside of their seasons.”
Like many in the global community, Michel did not intentionally move into ticketing.
“I was working as a volunteer FOH attendant at HVTC and had been there a few years,” she recalls. “My real job was as a radiographer, and I was also studying part-time. I volunteered as a way to see more theatre. Then, one day, the theatre manager asked if I could fill in for the Box Office and Front of House Coordinator while she was on leave. She didn’t come back, and so I gave up my full-time job as a radiographer and kept doing the role.”
Michel continues, “The atmosphere of the Playhouse was fantastic. Located above the 1,600-seat Civic Theatre, it was a cozy, inviting space. The staircase on entry was plastered with posters, and still, when I visit, I see shows that I remember on that wall. But the best memory was after the show finished when the cast/crew would invite whoever was playing in the Civic to wander into our bar, and it became a meeting spot for artists. [There were] singalongs, chess games, fledgling romances and lots of great conversations.”
The staircase leading to the Civic Theatre.
The Civic Theatre.
“This role set me up for the career I have had since,” Michel shares. “There was no computerized ticketing installed, so I learned how to manage a house, reconcile and record sales, all manually. It introduced me to this wonderful community, and I am so grateful for that tap on the shoulder to fill in.”
Anja Arvo
Our next origin story has an Australian connection, too. Anja Arvo recently joined Australia’s Ferve Tickets as Senior Sales Lead. She made the leap after six years of global experiences with Red61 and earlier career stops at the Shaw Festival and AudienceView, among others. Arvo has served organizations of all sizes and types for many years from the small town where she lives and works remotely. But her career in ticketing began in another small town.
“My first job was as a Box Office Seller at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium (TBCA) in Thunder Bay, Ontario, my hometown. I started in 1992 during high school,” Arvo shares.
Her journey into the world of ticketing began with a warm introduction and time on stage as a child. Arvo’s mother wrote for the Finnish newspaper in Thunder Bay. As a registered member of the media, she developed a professional relationship with the marketing lead from TBCA, who would connect her with experts and artists from the venue to assist her reporting. As a child, Arvo was one of the first performers at the TBCA grand opening.
“When I was a teenager, I expressed interest in working for TBCA to my Mom,” Arvo shares. “She called over to her marketing contact, who got me an interview in the box office, and I was hired. It was my first job on the administrative side of the arts.”
Arvo continues, “I really treasure the working relationship I developed with my supervisor, Lelia Cook. She took me under her wing and taught me the ArtSoft system, processing subscriptions and customer service. She had such a professional and objective approach to ticketing and customer service on the job and an outstanding sense of humour. I don’t think I ever saw her get upset about any situation. She made me look forward to going to work every day.”
One of Arvo’s fondest memories from her first ticketing job also has an Australian connection.
“Because I went to shows there, a fun show memory was being hypnotized and becoming part of a show by Reveen, who was an Australian illusionist and hypnotist who performed mainly in Canada. My co-workers really enjoyed watching that!”
Looking back on Arvo's career path, it is evident that while the world is vast, the ticketing industry and INTIX form a close-knit community.
“I did not know about INTIX when I worked there,” Arvo says. “It was only when I joined later in my career and had moved from Thunder Bay that I realized TBCA had been awarded the very first [Outstanding Ticket Office] award [from INTIX]. I was not surprised because I had gained solid ticketing and venue working experience from that job. The former Box Office Manager, Dianne Zemba, was on the slideshow at INTIX [2024 in Las Vegas] during one of the events, and I was so excited I took a picture and sent it to her.”
Jennifer Aprea
This decades-long ticketing pro began her career journey in 1994, working part-time evenings and weekends at New Stage Theater in Jackson, Mississippi. “The theater had 365 seats. One for every day of the year,” Aprea says.
She says, “Fresh out of [my] undergraduate [studies] at Texas Tech and a newlywed, I was an assistant in the theater’s education department, and my husband was the Technical Director. They needed help in the box office evenings and weekends, and since my husband was always working the shows anyway, I thought I may as well be there too. The extra money was nice too because, between the two of us, we only made about $400 a week.”
What is Aprea’s fondest memory from her first job in ticketing?
“So many!” she exclaims. “The theater had just moved to a computerized ticketing system, and they didn’t trust it one bit. So, we ran dual systems that year, pulled paper tickets from the rack on the wall and sold them in the computer, too. We reconciled both at the end of the day and hoped they matched. Usually, they did. But when they didn’t, the box office manager and I would spend hours and hours trying to figure out why. Doesn’t sound like much fun, but trust me, we had some truly epic late nights!”
Elizabeth Carlock
“My first job in ticketing was as the Assistant Ticket Services Manager for South Coast Repertory located in Costa Mesa, California,” Elizabeth Carlock shares.
An early photo of Elizabeth Carlock at South Coast Repertory.
Carlock started at South Coast Repertory (SCR) in February of 1994 and worked there for 13 years in various positions of increasing responsibilities.
How did she get her start in ticketing?
“I was working for a major hotel chain known at the time for their commitment to ‘Total Quality Management’ and had a degree from [UC Irvine] in theatre. A family friend who worked at South Coast Repertory called me and said, ‘I’m dropping off a job description at your house. Apply for this job and stress your hospitality in the interview.’ So, I did, and I got the job.”
Elizabeth Carlock repping SCR with her husband.
With a career stop at Santa Barbara Center for the Performing Arts along the way, Carlock currently serves as Ticket Services Manager at La Mirada Theatre, a 1,250-cap venue in Southern California. She spent 8.5 years as the Audience Development Coordinator before being elevated to her current position. Still, she looks back fondly at her first role in our industry.
“[I have] lots of fun memories, but two stories stand out,” she says. “South Coast Repertory does an annual production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ every year, which sold out every year and always has two performances on Christmas Eve, 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. I was the supervisor on duty on Christmas Eve during my first year. [At] about 4:30 p.m., I got a call from the Artistic Director to my direct line. I was very nervous because I didn’t know him well and couldn’t think of why he would be calling me. Upon answering, he says, ‘I need six great tickets for the evening performance of ‘A Christmas Carol’ tonight.’ I had to tell him, ‘Sorry, the last show of the day started a half hour ago.’ His response was, ‘Well, never mind.’ Honestly, I was relieved he called after the show had started because I couldn't figure out where I would have found six great tickets for this final, totally sold-out show. Whew.”
Carlock continues, “In 2006, when I was now the Ticket Services Director, we converted ticketing systems. [This is] a big job, as we all know. We were encouraged to celebrate the ‘Go Live’ date, so we all got shirts to wear, [with] different colors for the different departments, that commemorated our big day. As I was getting ready that morning, I noticed that our celebratory shirts looked like they said, ‘Op Evil.’ So that is what we called our big on-sale celebration — OP EVIL!”
Carlock says, “My first job in ticketing was the time I felt valued for who I was and what I could do. I felt welcome [and] as if I had found my tribe. A large part of that was how welcoming Debbie Walker, the Ticket Services Manager, was and how much she appreciated my skills. She is my mentor and still my very good friend.
Phoebe Joecks
Like Carlock, Phoebe Joecks got her start in ticketing in 1994. Her journey began in the phone room at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA). It was “the very same place I met the indelible Maureen Andersen,” Joecks exclaims. Before starting in the call center, Joecks was a cocktail waitress at the cabaret theater, now the Garner Galleria Theatre, at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. The bartender told her they were hiring in the box office, and Joecks’ story unfolds from there.
She says, “I interviewed and got the job. Funny, thinking back, I could barely type. At best, it was hunt and peck, and now, so many years later, I do not even need to look at my hands anymore. Little did I know then that this was to be my career. I started working in the box office in 1994, before online ticketing, but after the stone age of rack ticketing!”
When it comes to Joecks’ best memories from her first job in ticketing, she says there are too many to count. However, one sticks out in her mind.
“[I remember] when ‘Sunset Boulevard’ went on sale and dear Maureen herself was sitting alongside all of us in the phone room and taking calls for tickets. The DCPA was a wonderful place to grow up. I went on to other ticketing jobs but returned to the DCPA in a few different instances in my career, and being welcomed back was something [for which] I was always grateful. I worked there off and on for a decade. There was such a wonderful cast of characters who always bring a smile when I think back on my time at the DCPA.”
Lori Murphy
Lori Murphy was recognized as the 2024 Outstanding Ticketing Professional during the 45th Annual INTIX Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas. This accolade came almost three decades after she got her start in ticketing in 1995 as a student worker during her junior year at Missouri State University.
Murphy was already working at HSC when an opportunity came up to make extra money working in the ticket office. “The hours would be during the day, so I could work around classes and my other job duties while at HSC,” she shares.
“We sold tickets for men’s basketball, women’s basketball, volleyball and concerts at Hammons Student Center (HSC). In the fall of 1996, we merged with Juantia K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts ticket office and started using a computerized ticketing system … Once we merged, we started selling their shows as well from our ticket office. I worked the daytime hours since I was an usher captain during the events at HSC.”
We asked Murphy about her fondest memory from her first job in ticketing. She shared one from the 1995–96 men’s and women’s basketball season.
“All the tickets were hard printed. The whole arena was printed. They came in books, and each game had a different color border,” she recollects. “There wasn’t any room in the ticket office, so we set up tables just outside the office in front of a racquetball court. Sometimes we used the court to spread out. Each season ticket holder had a 5x7 card with their information, donation level and seat location. We would go section by section with each card, stuffing the tickets into an envelope to mail out. It took us a few weeks to get all the tickets stuffed and mailed out.”
She continues, “Once the season tickets were mailed out, we took each book and tore them
apart game by game, section by section, row by row, so we could put them in the racks to sell for each game. For me, it is mind-blowing that in the last two decades of my career, I have gone
from hard printing tickets to printing on demand to print-at-home and now digital tickets.”
Murphy had another fun memory to share.
“My parents are [Missouri State] Lady Bears season ticket holders (and now men’s basketball season ticket holders). I happened to be managing the building one night when my colleagues were stuffing tickets. I said, ‘If you find my parents’ tickets, let me know. I’ll make sure they receive the tickets and save postage.’ Later that night, I called my parents and told them I had their season tickets and held them for ransom so I could either get laundry done or a meal. I don’t recall.”
She continues, “The next year, we went to printing the tickets on demand, so the books were no
longer available. A few years later, I was home, and a season ticket holder asked me to come back to work at the ticket office because he didn’t like how the tickets were printed and wanted the books and not the ‘accordion style’ tickets they received.”
Kacy Woody
Kacy Woody started her journey in ticketing by filling in at the box office of the Carolina Theatre in Greensboro when they were short-staffed. She was offered the opportunity while in the office to pick up her check.
“In 1996, I worked as a stagehand for the Carolina Theatre in Greensboro, North Carolina. They suddenly lost their Box Office Manager and one of their part-time sellers. They had a big show going on sale … The Office Manager, who was pulling double duty, asked me to step in during the on-sale to help answer the phones. I had to learn Choice Ticketing on DOS quickly! They asked me to fill in during some afternoons when they didn’t have any coverage and I wasn’t already working backstage,” she recalls.
Woody continues, “In retrospect, I seem to have a pattern of being offered ticketing jobs when I’m in the office for something completely unrelated. That’s how I got my current job, too.”
Today, Kacy Woody is the Box Office Manager for High Point Theatre in central North Carolina.
In the next and final installment of our series, we will share memories from a former INTIX Board Chair who got his start while doing double duty — in the ticket office and as the bullpen catcher for an AAA baseball team. We also have stories about the circus, getting a key to the venue, selling tickets while sitting with the artist and more.
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Tags: Leadership , Career