In the ticketing and live events space, there are some instances where certain people are just born for the job. Ladies and gentlepersons, I give you Stephanie Tancredi, who has been box office manager at California State University, Fullerton for the past 13 years. Tancredi hasn’t just worked on this campus as an adult. Her days of helping to fill seats began when she was a sophomore at the school and was hired to work box office.

She didn’t start at her alma mater professionally right away, though. Her first job out of college was working box office at the La Jolla Playhouse. “That was awesome,” she recalls. “I learned a lot.” She then learned an entirely different part of the business, working in operations and production at the then-Orange County Performing Arts Center, which is now known as The Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California.

Giving It the Ol’ College Try

But she also kept her old college ties. Eventually, those ties paid off when Cal State Fullerton asked her to return to campus when the previous box office manager departed. She says, “They knew I had an attachment to this place. So, it was a full-circle moment for me. It was also the right decision at the right time. I’ve loved it!”

In addition to managing ticketing and the box office for a venue that hosts an array of campus arts and entertainment events, she also oversees the front of house. “So, I am in charge of the house managers and ushers,” she says. “I have an entirely student staff on both ends, box office and house management. It’s delightful, but challenging at times!”

The most obvious challenge is staff turnover. Tancredi, though, was smart enough to set the tone early. She recalls, “With the first group of students I inherited, I jokingly said, ‘Hey, I am going to leave it up to you guys to find me your replacements before you graduate.’ But, over time, that actually has worked out more often than not. The students know what it takes to work here — the mindset, the personality and so forth. If I do say so myself, these jobs have become coveted positions on campus! At least within the College of Arts, they have. Very few of [my student-employees] go on to do ticketing. But I feel like they do learn a lot. The skills they learn here, they can apply in so many jobs… and, of course, in life.”

She continues, “The students are the favorite part of my job. 100% they are! When I was a working student in the box office and doing my own ushering hours, I did the same things they are now doing. So, I understand them. I was also really lucky that I had mentors. My box office manager made it such a welcoming, safe space. So, for me to pass that on and recreate that environment for the students of today, that is my main goal.”

Tancredi also says she is very grateful that she has had a career in the arts her whole adult life. That can be a hard thing to do. Part of it has been her passion for the arts. Part of it was following in the footsteps of her father, who worked for The Walt Disney Co. for 47 years in the entertainment division, which found him involved in everything from theme park parades to helping launch Tokyo Disneyland.

His best advice to his daughter: “Keep people at the center. ‘Center the human.’ My dad definitely had a Disney mentality. He would say the people who come to see your efforts, you never know what it might have taken them to get there. Some may have come a long way or spent a lot of money or waited a very long time to see X event. Keep people at the center. When things get difficult and some customers are difficult, there is usually a reason why. Set aside the annoyance of the moment, and center the human.”

The Ups and Downs of Campus Life

And even after 13 years, Tancredi still deals with her fair share of difficulties. She says the primary challenge is “[getting people to] understand what we actually do. Even people who you think are supportive, they still don’t quite understand what it is we really, really do and how important it is. For example, getting people in finance or IT to realize that, ‘Oh, no! We may really need something very important from you at 8 p.m. on a Friday night! Or at 4 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon! Be ready!’ I guess you can say we sometimes just ‘don’t compute’ with some people on campus.”

When times are toughest, Tancredi relies on her experience and, often, her ties in the industry to get her through. And, with this being our monthly Women in Ticketing column, she is more than eager to give advice to any young woman just started out in ticketing who is hoping to make it a career.

“Build a community around yourself,” she urges, “whether it’s a team in the office or the community that we have as INTIX members. I know that, for me, finding INTIX was pretty monumental because I had been out of ticketing for a while. So, having that support system was an amazing thing. I also think a lot of women, especially young women, feel they have to prove themselves and be all things to all people. Just don’t! Don’t try to do that. That’s an exercise in futility. Put your head down and do the work, and people will notice and appreciate it.”

The Road Ahead

Tancredi says is fairly optimistic about where live events are headed both on her campus and elsewhere. “Being at a college,” she concludes, “we don’t do nearly the volume that so many other organizations do. Coming up, we’re going to do three performances of our big holiday show, and tickets went on sale Sept. 30. We had the most insane on-sale in my almost 13 years here! It’s always pretty popular, but all three shows are nearly sold out. Sales have been picking for at least the last year or two. It was sluggish coming out of the pandemic. But this past spring semester, things finally felt like they were back to normal. I don’t know. Maybe the world is so bad off right now that people are grasping on to live entertainment. If so… come see a show!”