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Theater volunteers find their life’s ‘second act’ — and keep local venues humming

March 31, 2026

By Peter D. Kramer

The Eaton fire was closing in on their Altadena neighborhood on Jan. 7, 2025, when Maggie Chatman and her husband, Kevin, got the word: Evacuate.

Looking back, Maggie says her actions in those next moments could be interpreted two ways. They could be a sign of her commitment to her friends at A Noise Within theater in Pasadena. Or “a little looniness.”

“I threw all my black clothes into my luggage, so I’d have stuff I could wear for ushering so I could still do the theater,” she says. “There were family pictures I didn’t think to grab, but I’m grabbing my stage blacks. What can I say?”

The Chatmans lost everything in the fire, except what they carried out. They now live in an apartment in Monrovia, a half-hour train ride and a short walk from A Noise Within, a place that holds great meaning for them.

While dedicated in the extreme (or a little loony) Maggie Chatman is among thousands of volunteers who keep Southern California’s theaters afloat, whether as board members, by providing hospitality at events, by spreading the word about shows, or by helping patrons to find their seats. They get to see live theater while finding purpose and community.

Back at A Noise Within

The Chatmans returned to A Noise Within a month after the fire, when the season resumed after its January break. Maggie had her stage blacks; Kevin, who had been more optimistic — believing their home would be spared — bought new ones.

“It kept things normal for us because everything was so crazy,” Maggie says. “It was like, ‘OK, we can focus. We’re here to do this job and to be around this great group of people.’ Everyone was there for us, and it was a way to forget what was going on outside of the theater.”

The couple had retired from LA Water and Power, where they had met, in careers that spanned three-plus decades.

Maggie had already been volunteering for years at the 686-seat Pasadena Playhouse when Kevin retired and joined her. When a fellow usher suggested they try A Noise Within, they did — and now juggle ushering assignments at both theaters, which are five miles apart and have seasons running at the same time.

The Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

One of the perks of being an usher is staying to watch a performance if seats are available.

Pasadena Playhouse’s season continues with Hamid Rahmanian’s “Song of the North,” March 21-29; “Brigadoon,” May 13 to June 14; and “Mexodus,” July 8-Aug. 2. A Noise Within stages modern takes on classic works. Here’s the rest of the 2026 season: “Death of a Salesman,” through April 19; and “Exit the King,” May 3-31.

Melody Moore is house manager at the 324-seat A Noise Within. She schedules the seven or eight ushers she needs per performance from a list of about 100 volunteers, about 30% of whom are seniors.

Melody Archer Moore, house manager for Pasadena's mid-century modern theatre, A Noise Within, relaxes before intermission on Sunday, February 8, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG) — Melody Archer Moore, house manager for Pasadena’s mid-century modern theatre, A Noise Within, relaxes before intermission on Sunday, February 8, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

“I want to make sure that the theater is a warm, welcoming place,” Moore says. “I need these volunteers to be warm and welcoming. You get somebody like Kevin and Maggie, people recognize them, and that’s always a good thing.”

While Moore bristled initially at the task of scheduling volunteers, “it has turned out to be one of my favorite things about the job. I’ve met lasting friends. We go out to movies, go out to lunches.”

Volunteering seniors find needs and fill them at different venues from L.A. to San Bernardino to San Diego, including at historic homes and theaters.

“I have one lady who works at, I don’t know, must be six different venues that she volunteers in — The (David B.) Gamble House and the Pasadena Playhouse and me. And, it’s wonderful,” Moore says.

“Retirement can be a very lonely place,” she says. “I have a lot of men and women, they live alone, and aside from seeing a play, it’s a very social situation.”

At 74, Moore — who lives in Shadow Hills — could retire, if she weren’t having so much fun. She realizes the kindred spirit she found in Maggie Chatman.

“Six years ago, I had to evacuate my house. I was fortunate it didn’t burn, but we had to evacuate,” Moore says. “I got over to my friend’s house and I had my theater blacks. That was the only clothing that I had — my blacks — because I had a matinee the next day.”

When she heard that Maggie had brought her blacks through the Eaton fire lines, Moore says: “I was like, ‘Yeah, OK, birds of a feather.”

A network of theaters, volunteers

Up and down the Southern California coast and out to San Bernardino and Riverside counties, there’s a network of venues and volunteers.

Gabrielle Holley is the event, house and volunteer manager at North Coast Rep in Solana Beach (northcoastrep.org). She says the area is blessed with “an incredible usher community.”

“It’s not just our theater,” Holley says. “It’s a community of theaters where a lot of our ushers work. Sometimes, it’s a whole family affair, a whole network of people that work throughout all of San Diego.”

In the Coachella Valley, Kevin Kersey oversees a small army of volunteers nearly every night of the week from September through June. He’s the house manager for the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert (www.mccallumtheatre.org), where more than 160 shows a year promise something for nearly everyone.

Kersey needs 38 ushers for each performance to guide patrons to the venue’s 1,127 seats. He has a core roster of more than 170 volunteers, 90 percent of whom are seniors, many of those vacationing or snowbirding in the area. For that reason, he says the job is easier from January through April but harder in September and June, when the snowbirds haven’t arrived or have taken flight.

Volunteer ushers are the face of the McCallum, he says.

“That is who the patron first sees and who they see at the end,” he says. “They’re the personality of the theater.”

One of Kersey’s volunteers is retiree Nancy Gilmore, a 10-year veteran who lives about three miles from the McCallum and sometimes works up to a dozen shows a month. When friends mentioned they were ushers there, Gilmore signed on.

“I decided, ‘Well, hey, I can go ahead and work and see many more shows and my husband can just go and sit in the ones that he wants to sit in,’” she says.

Gilmore is partial to Barry Manilow’s Christmas shows, pianists and the Broadway series. She loves it when the audience dresses up in costumes — including disco outfits for ABBA tributes — to celebrate the show.

“I retired 20 years ago and I’m having more fun now,” says the former Farmers Insurance claims adjuster. “As long as they have shows to see and need people to help, I’m willing to do it,” she says.

‘I always want to be here’

Kitty Malcolm knew one thing: When she retired, she didn’t want to sit at home and read books and watch TV all day.

“You can only plant so many flowers and then you gotta go do something,” she says.

Kitty Malcolm, pictured at the Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, retired from law-firm management and is now on the board of the Laguna Playhouse and is a volunteer chair of Playhouse Women. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

When Malcolm and her husband moved to Laguna Beach from the East Coast 20 years ago, they found golf wasn’t their thing and soon realized they didn’t really know how to volunteer.

“We’d been in corporate America all our lives and volunteerism is very, very different,” Malcolm says. “I was in the business of managing law firms. If someone didn’t do what they were supposed to do, you let them go. In the volunteer world, you’re lucky to get volunteers and you treat them with deference.”

Malcolm joined the Women’s Club of Laguna Beach, eventually serving as its president, and encountered Laguna Playhouse.

“It felt like home,” she says. “When I first walked into the Playhouse, the first thing I thought of was: ‘I always want to be here.’ The minute we walked in you could see the companionship, the camaraderie, people hugging, giving little kisses on the cheek. I thought: ‘This is what I want to be part of.’”

Being an usher wasn’t her thing, but she found a fit with Playhouse Women, a group dedicated to raising awareness about the venue.

The 500-seat theater is intimate, she says, and you just might find yourself sitting next to the mayor. Laguna Playhouse’s mainstage season continues with “The Maltese Falcon,” April 15-May 3; and “RED,” June 10-28.

Not in it for the money (there is none)

Theater isn’t a money-making business, says Nicole Cassesso, executive director of One More Productions, which operates the GEM Theatre in Garden Grove, a 158-seat space with roots in 1920s vaudeville.

The GEM pays its musicians and some top staff and offers stipends for actors, which is not typical for community, non-Actors’ Equity theaters. Tight margins put a premium on volunteers.

“Any place that we can make up with people coming in and volunteering is absolutely massive,” she says. The GEM is not just a theater. It’s a home to foster and grow one’s craft, one’s community, one’s experience, Cassesso says.

“We refer to people that come through those doors — whether they’re backstage on stage or audience members — as family.”

The 2026 mainstage season: “Hairspray,” through March 29; “Footloose,” June 4-July 12; “Sweeney Todd,” Aug. 20 to Sept. 27; and “Fiddler on the Roof,” Nov. 12 to Dec. 20.

Debbi Ebert has been showing up at the GEM for years to sing jazz. The retired medical assistant from Anaheim has had a jazz residency in Brea for 20 years.

“I tell folks that theater is my sub-specialty, my hobby, because primarily I’m a jazz singer,” she says. There was a time when she was a professional actor, appearing in “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Eubie,” “Nunsense I and II” and other shows.

“I did ‘Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill’ at South Coast Repertory Theater long before … what’s her name? She got the Tony for it …?”

That’d be Audra McDonald.

The GEM is less than 10 miles from her home, and it will be her second home through March, when she appears as record store owner and social justice pioneer Motormouth Maybelle in “Hairspray.” She’s so committed to the role, she’ll shelve her residency for six weeks to play it. Ebert says folks who are still looking for a “second act” should consider dipping a toe into theater.

“You know how people say, ‘I wanna live in the moment?’ By engaging in the arts, whether it’s on stage or working back in the scenery department or as a set builder or whatever, it keeps you living in the moment,” she says.

All stripes of volunteers, donations

There are many ways to help your local theater.

San Diego’s Cygnet Theatre has the Cygnet Social Circle, with special invitation-only events for members to “expand the reach of our award-winning regional theatre through personal contacts.”

Cygnet Swans bring snacks for the cast and crew and host a dinner for each production. Cygnet Ambassadors spread the word at arts festivals. Cygnet has special-events volunteers, administrative volunteers and costume volunteers. Each year, Cygnet takes members on a trip to see theater, with recent trips to London, Paris, Edinburgh and New York.

Every theater welcomes monetary gifts, with levels that grant insiders’ access, or a seat named after them, or tickets to galas.

The Pasadena Playhouse invites donors to “take your love of theater to center stage” with Playhouse Premiere and Backstage Society donation levels, at $3,600 and $10,000 annually.

Feed your family, help your theater

But you needn’t drop thousands to support your local theater. Some theaters make it as easy as buying a pint of Rocky Road ice cream.

Ralphs grocery stores let you back local nonprofits, including theaters, by linking them to your customer card in its Ralphs Community Contribution program. They earmark more than $500,000 a fiscal quarter to the program. (Details at Ralphs Community Contribution or by calling 800-443-4438.)

Pasadena Playhouse is in the Ralphs program. So, too, is Rogue Machine Theatre in West Hollywood. Every time fans of these theaters use their cards at checkout, a portion of the purchase can make shows happen.

Buy that loaf of bread, and you could be supporting a production of “Les Miserables.”

Theater volunteers find their life’s ‘second act’ — and keep local venues humming Orange County Register

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Theater volunteers find their life’s ‘second act’ — and keep local venues humming

Back at A Noise Within

A network of theaters, volunteers

‘I always want to be here’

Not in it for the money (there is none)

All stripes of volunteers, donations

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