I love the theater. I have always loved the theater. I was part of the theater community in my youth and now I am a patron of Starlight Theater. For those of you who don't know, Starlight Theater is an outdoor theater in Kansas City. They bring some of the best, traveling, Broadway Shows to our city. I have season tickets and have purchased them for many years. This all sounds great, but why in the world would I feel I need to blog about it. Well, reader, let me paint the picture for you.
Every November I receive a notice that it is time to renew my season tickets for the next year. My brother-in-law and I purchase them at this time and actually give them to each other for Christmas. Some time in May the actual tickets arrive in my mailbox. Included with the tickets is a parking pass for the reserve parking. The parking pass says that the gates open at six o'clock. Close examination of the tickets reveals that the show begins at 8 pm. Not a shock to me because the shows always begin at 8pm.
I know this is not very interesting, but I am getting to the point. Five shows into the six show season I am still asking myself the same question. How is it when you know when the gates open, and you know when the show starts, can you always arrive after the show has begun? I can understand a few people arriving late. Things happen. I get it. We are talking, probably fifty to seventy five people each show.
At 8 o'clock when the show is scheduled to begin, the General manager of Starlight comes out and talks for a moment about the show, upcoming shows, and does a drawing for a prize. Then the orchestra plays the overture for a while before the production begins. The show starts at about ten minutes after 8. People are still filing in at this point. They don't even do the half duck where they feel bad that they are in your way. They just shuffle along to their seat like they are right on time.
Maybe it is just me, but come on. Read you ticket. It says 8pm. Get your butt into your seat by 8pm. Why should the rest of us have to deal with your lack of clock management skills. It irritates me so much that I have a hard time keeping myself from going up to them and asking them what the problem is. I paid a lot of money to see these shows. I get there on time and get to my seat. I understand if you are a doctor and the surgery ran long, but looking at the majority of these people I can safely say they are not surgeons. Maybe you could just leave the house fifteen to twenty minutes earlier and same me a lot of grief.
I want to solicit responses from my dear readers to see if it is just me who makes too much of things or if these people need a good talking to from their mothers on punctuality and common courtesy. Tell me what you think.
Not the most interesting, I understand, but it is just something that has been bothering me. Bear with my rants, readers, its all part of the process. Get it out before it weighs me down.
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. ~Carl Sandburg
