Tuxedo Talents: Alison Hill

Roy Thomson Hall and Massey Hall obviously attract great performers; what you may not realize though, is that this talent is not limited to the artists you see on stage. Among our staff – and especially among the part-time, front-line customer service staff – are people with any number of hidden talents. Many of our friendly box office agents and ushers are, in their alternate lives, singers, dancers, actors, artists, photographers, conductors, jugglers, and lion tamers. (Okay, maybe not that last one.) Over the next few weeks we’ll be telling you some of their stories.

The claim tag which you receive when you check your coat comes in a big roll; when the usher removes your tag from the roll, that constitutes a sale. One day, while working in the coat check at Roy Thomson Hall, Alison Hill did something an usher is told never to do:pre -rip those tags. Alison soon began to regret her decision and worried about what would happen if no one wanted to check their jackets this particular evening. Struck by this dilemma, Alison – who is, among other things, an actor, singer, and songwriter – quickly came up with lyrics and melody to a song about her predicament.

Now, you might think that such a song would be nothing but a mere distraction during a lull in patron traffic. This would be underestimating Alison’s creativity rather significantly. The song quickly became Alison’s starting point for a whole usher-themed musical, a performance piece about the many and sometimes odd situations front of house employees must contend with every night in our mission to provide superior customer service.

In addition to developing her usher-themed musical, Alison is excited to be working on her first feature-length movie, tentatively titled I Dream of the Dragon and the Phoenix. The film will be a comedy about a life at a crossroads and a girl whose theatre is going to be destroyed in order to make way for an auction mart for live animals. And if that weren’t enough, Alison is currently a student at Second City, and performs at the John Candy Box Theatre every Thursday night.

We wish Alison luck in all her endeavours, and if you ever happen to come across a line of ushers doing the can-can, now you’ll know why!

Deloni Leslie is a Front of House Floor Captain for Roy Thomson Hall.

Alison Hill,Roy Thomson Hall,Tuxedo Talents