Music Hall's Robin Albert: 'Communities just don’t work without volunteers'

PORTSMOUTH — Robin Albert of Portsmouth feels right at home in a theater. She has volunteered at The Music Hall for 15 years.

“My background is in the arts, in theater, so volunteering in the arts brought me back to my origins,” she said.

She grew up 12 miles from Manhattan. Her mother was a dancer. Her parents often took her to shows in the city. A theater education major at the University of New Hampshire, she taught theater at Portsmouth High School for over 20 years. She has also directed four Prescott Park summer musicals. Her career took her into health and human services at Sexual Assault Support Services, into volunteer engagement at Seacoast United Way, and back into the arts and culture realm at Portsmouth Historical Society as its Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center coordinator.

Since she arrived in Portsmouth in 1974, she has been active in the community in many ways, helping to found organizations such as Aids Response Seacoast, Seacoast Outright and Leadership Seacoast. She served the city as an Art-Speak board member and co-chair. For her decades of service, she was honored with a 2018 Inspiration Award from Portsmouth Public Media TV.

At Seacoast United Way, she oversaw the online Volunteer Action Center that connected would-be volunteers with the organizations that needed them.

“Communities just don’t work without volunteers,” she said about her work with volunteers and her motivation for years of volunteering herself. “I think it's really about building a community and knowing that your time matters. Your time can be just as valuable as your dollars.”

Albert also currently volunteers at the polls on Election Day, for Portsmouth 400 updating its online calendar with events, on the city’s committee for arts and non-profits, at her synagogue and for her homeowners association board. She volunteers as a Chamber Ambassador for the Chamber Collaborative of Greater Portsmouth. And she works - in guest services at the Sailmaker’s House and leads the Friday tasting tour for Portsmouth Eats.

Normally, her husband Wayne and she will volunteer at The Music Hall on the same night. “He’s upstairs at concessions,” she said. “And I’m usually downstairs taking tickets, helping patrons and assisting them with the elevator.”

She lives a short walk from the theater. The proximity has upped her hours volunteering, she says, since she’s so close she often runs over when an SOS email goes out from the theater, saying they need more volunteers for that night’s performance.

Like many volunteers, Albert doesn’t know exactly how much time she gives The Music Hall.

“It varies by week. … We probably do six or seven evening shows a month, but sometimes it might be just three,” she said. Volunteers arrive 90 minutes before showtime and usually stay until audience members have all gone home.

“When we first started volunteering you physically had to come to the building, open a notebook and sign up for events,” she said. “Now it’s a software, you go online, you look at the show and not only do you pick your night, you can pick what you do,” she said. “There’s no minimum or maximum. It's very flexible.”

The perks are many. When you volunteer for a live performance, you of course get to see the performance for free. She estimated about 18 volunteers are needed for each live performance or event.

When you volunteer for a movie, you just have to check movie-goers’ tickets because it’s general admission seating so you don’t have to help people find their reserved seats. Volunteers can bring a friend to watch the movie and both will receive free popcorn from the concession stand.

“The audience members are great. Because everybody is coming to see something that going to make you happy,” she said. “The patrons are lovely. If I stand at the bottom of the steps at the end of the show and say ‘Good night, thanks for coming,’ they often say ‘Oh, thank you for volunteering.’”

Volunteers wear name tags with their first name only on them. New volunteers go through an orientation and sometimes shadow a more experienced volunteer on their first night.

“We usually only know each other by our first names. You just kind of get to know people and and chat at the beginning of the evening,” she said. “Often there's a big volunteer appreciation party, but there are so many other benefits, we don’t really need to be thrown a party. I always feel appreciated.”

Theater volunteers are on the front lines with the audience.

“The volunteers here care about the audience members and their experience,” she said. “We know that we are the ambassadors for the theater.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Music Hall's Robin Albert: 'Communities don’t work without volunteers'