A theatrical openings around town, there are two things you can count on: backstage jitters and Joseph “Butch” Gniadek in the lobby.
The 57-year-old Gniadek (pronounced NY-dek) has been tearing tickets since 1980 when he began volunteering at the Shubert Theatre. Now a paid Shubert usher, he also volunteers at nearly every other theater in Chicago, from the tiny Lifeline and Strawdog on the North Side to the Court in Hyde Park, plus the Goodman and Steppenwolf in between.
Gniadek, a former high school English teacher, ushers seven nights most weeks, mixing in a few concert jobs and sometimes covering two openings in one day.
Q. You’re Mr. First Night. Why do you like to work openings?
A. The theater people want me. A whole myth has grown up that I’m a good-luck charm. I like being there because it’s the performance where you have the directors and designers, the critics, the Jeff (Jefferson Award) people, plus family and friends of the cast and crew. I go to the opening-night party and chat with the actors and explain what I liked or didn’t like about the show.
Q. So you’re on a first-name basis with, say, John Malkovich?
A. Oh, yes. Sometimes the actors know me before I know them.
Q. During performances, where do you like to sit?
A. I usually try taking a seat in the back because I can get a better perspective of the audience in case there’s a problem.
Q. What’s the noisiest incident you’ve had to contend with?
A. There was a person snoring so loudly at a Northwestern University production that I could hear it on the other side of the house. I had to go tap him. That (snoring) happens occasionally. Maybe you’ve had a hard day and you get into the theater into a nice, warm, comfortable seat, and your body says, “Well, it’s dark. Maybe I should go to sleep.” But usually there’s a wife or friend to nudge you.
Q. Are you irritated when people arrive late?
A. Yes, but it happens, even to me. At some theaters, latecomers get seated in the back, but when “Cats” was at the Shubert recently, we held people in the outer lobby because the actors are up and down the aisles early in the show. Late seating is especially difficult at a small storefront theater like the Shattered Globe. You’re so close to the actors that it’s difficult to sneak in without upstaging them.
Q. How do you feel about people who move to better seats after the performance has started?
A. The rule is, they’re not supposed to do that, especially when there is reserved seating. If they’re moving around in the dark, changing seats, they could go bouncing down stairs.
Q. If you could change anything about audiences, what would it be?
A. I wish some people wouldn’t wear so much perfume or aftershave. I was once sitting behind a person who smelled like he had taken a bath in it.
Q. One of your jobs is “policing the house” after performances. What do people leave behind?
A. All sort of debris – umbrellas and earrings and wallets and purses and glasses. At the Shubert, a woman once left a pair of high heels. She must have made herself comfortable and put on another pair of shoes.
Q. Do you ever get tired of going out and decide to stay home and watch TV?
A. Don’t even ask me what’s on. I’ve seen John Mahoney in “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” but I’ve never seen him on “Frasier.”
