The Voice of Bailey Hall

Working for Cornell Productions isn't like working for the dining halls or at the library. I don’t have a certain number of hours I have to work every week. I don’t work a certain shift with a particular group of people. Instead, when Cornell Productions is hired by a show or event, I get an email with all the open shifts for the coming week. If I’m interested and free for any of the shifts, I reply and wait to see what my job assignments are.

Over the past few weeks, I mainly worked stagehand shifts at Bailey Hall, Cornell's auditorium that hosts everything from music groups to dance troupes.

Bailey Hall

As I've mentioned briefly before, being a stagehand means sitting backstage and being ready in case the sound or stage managers need anything. Sometimes we also open and close the stage doors or run the lights, by which I mean slide the switch up or down on command.

After the show, when everyone else leaves, is when things get busy for us. At that point, we’re allowed to come out from our hiding places on the wings. Depending on the show and upcoming events, our jobs range from chair corralling to riser wrangling to wire coiling. (Home, home on the stage; where the chairs and the music stands need-to-be-stored.)

Recently while working, I've heard the Cornell Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and both of the CU Winds bands. You know you’re a band geek when you get excited that one of the bands is playing “Sea Songs” by Vaughan Williams, which sounds a lot like the Vaughan Williams Folk Song Suite which you played in high school, and the other ensemble is playing “Festive Overture” by Shostakovich, which the district orchestra played one year.

Anyway, due to the nature of my job, I can go weeks without seeing the same Cornell Productions people; however, since my recent shifts have all been at Bailey, I've been working for the Bailey sound and stage managers. And in doing so, I've gotten to know who the voice of Bailey Hall is. You know, the guy who says “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to tonight’s show at Bailey Hall. At this time, please silence your electronic devises and note that recording or any kind of prohibited. Enjoy the show.” After the show, he also says things along the lines of, “All the stands and chairs need to go downstairs” and “Someone’s going to have to crawl under those risers.”