Marketing and ABT at the Met

By Evelyn Ling, Marketing Intern

During the MET season, ABT performs eight times per week for eight weeks straight. It’s their longest season and usually offers a more expansive repertory than the Fall Season, featuring numerous full-length story ballets such as Swan Lake and Le Corsaire and premieres by ABT’s Residence Choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky. As a Marketing Intern, I work at the boutique at the Metropolitan Opera House during the season. Thankfully, this semester there were two Marketing interns, so we were able to split up the performances into four for me, and four for Kelsey.

Usually I arrive at the Met about an hour and half before the show starts. The doors open a half an hour before the show, so I have to make sure I’m ready before then. The boutique is open before the show, during intermission, and after the show only for Matinees. I always have two volunteers working with me; some of them have been here for over 20 years! It’s wonderful to see how much they love working for the company. They also know the ins and outs of the company—who comes to watch, who has been dancing for how many years, one of them even knows all the birthdates of all the dancers.

For the most part, my job is just setting up the table with all the merchandise we have for the week. It differs every time I go, since some things sell out or sometimes we get new stock. I like to change up the table so that each time it looks different. For our merchandise, we have an assortment of t-shirts in a variety of colors and styles, totes, caps, almost anything you can imagine. Tutus, wands and jewelry boxes are a favorite among the children.

During the show, I restock any low inventory from the boutique on the Grand Tier level. That one is much larger than ours and also sells autographed pointe shoes from the company dancers. In my free time I like to go up to see which pointe shoes they have for sale.

At intermission, it’s back to selling, then restocking when the show continues. At the end, if we clean up fast, we sometimes can even watch the last act of the ballet. The Met has large HD TV’s on either side of the theatre, so even without a ticket, I can watch. Of course, it’s not the same as watching it live. After that, it’s back home and coming back the next day!