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Monday, July 07, 2003
Backstage
By Frances Grace Martinez
I used to often wonder what it would be like working for an events group. The thought excited me so when the opportunity came my way I grabbed it. And guess what? I got the chance to become a floor director! Cool huh? Well, not exactly!
I’m not saying there’s no thrill at all in being a floor director. Actually it’s the opposite. Aside from being the one to handle “the floor” so to speak, I got to meet different kinds of people and learn a lot from handling the staff to dealing with clients.
Then I get to the part of having mixed feelings before an event especially when I feel so excited and at the same time freaked out! Questions start to arise in my head. The WHAT IFs…? What if the sound systems fail? What if the program won’t satisfy the audience? What if it won’t be a success?
I start thinking of unthinkable things that could happen until my mind goes crazy! Fact of life I guess, when I get so pressured from preparing and thinking of upcoming events. How I solve it? Erase all the jitters I feel inside and SMILE…no matter whatever goes through my thick head until my gums hurt and jaws break! It’s like I just underwent surgery for my mouth! Aside from having these thoughts, I had experienced funny and memorable situations of being a floor director…
This happened during an event wherein we had no rest or sleep at all. Well, I think we got the privilege of having an hour’s sleep before the event but still anyone would know that that amount of time isn’t even close to being enough to be alive and kicking the following day.
I would never forget the looks on our faces when we showed up for the event. We felt and looked like zombies! Some didn’t even bother to shower ‘coz of the traditional way of thinking that it isn’t good to take a bath without any sleep! I remember talking and answering questions without blinking an eye ‘coz I was afraid that I would space out and drop to the floor. I remember that I just kept on smiling at them.
Believe me, my eyesight was fooling me- I was seeing my bed in front of me already! Another funny thing was, I felt that I was becoming deaf since my boss, who also owns the company, kept on repeating the instructions over and over again through the radio used for communication and maybe because my fingers were too tired of pressing the “talk” button, I felt that my hands were failing me! After a while I didn’t have the energy to press the button anymore. I remember that the words going through my head were “Stay alive, stay alive, stay alive!”
Being a floor director is not an easy job and I could say that I’ve got my moments, too, especially after an event which I know was a success. Though there are times that I really can’t help it especially when I, and the rest of the staff too, sometimes felt like hell was breaking lose!
These things happen you know. And I could say that these are the moments when instead of wailing about it- though sometimes it tends to end up that way-we end up laughing about it because of the position we were in! I call it the memoirs of being backstage.
(July 7, 2003 issue)
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