A warm welcome: Ushering people into the Garde for two decades
Aug. 31—EDITOR'S NOTE — Ever wonder what's the story behind that person you see picking up roadside garbage in Old Lyme? Or what's the deal with that usher at the Garde Arts Center in New London who takes your tickets with a giant smile? The Day is launching a Get to Know Your Neighbors series, where for the next week you will learn about the people in your community who make a big difference but often go unnoticed.
When she was a teen, Ellie Engdall — who grew up in Hartford but spent summers with her family in Waterford — and a friend used to grab a bus ride into New London to catch a film at the Garde movie palace.
That was her introduction to the spot that, decades later, would become the Garde Arts Center, hosting a wide range of performances.
Engdall, 86, has become much more familiar with the Garde over the past two decades — as one of the venue's dedicated ushers.
She is one of the cadre of volunteer ushers who cheerfully greet Garde patrons as they trundle into the auditorium and who guide theatergoers to their seats.
If people sit in the orchestra left section, they know Engdall. That's her section.
Engdall, a Waterford resident, said ushering is work, but it's also personally rewarding.
"I'm a people person, and people come back. We see them and we talk to them. ... The fun thing is to be with people and see people happy," she said.
The ushers chat with patrons who might otherwise not have a lot of folks to talk to, she said. They help people who, say, are in a wheelchair or need help getting to the bathroom.
"That's our job ― not only just seating them; it's more or less loving them," Engdall said.
She sees a lot of the same people return over time.
"It's like going to church ― you sit in the same seats, if you can get the same seats. And then (as an usher) you go, 'Oh, how are you? How are you doing?'" she said.
While she "always had a love for the Garde" going back to those teen years, Engdall began ushering there after she heard a friend was doing it, and Engdall thought she'd give it a try.
When Engdall started volunteering at the Garde, she would sell the performer's merchandise in the lobby, but the performers eventually began bringing their own people to do that, and she switched to being in the theater's auditorium.
She recalls meeting Pat Boone. She has loved seeing all the parents who have been in the audience for the New London Talent Show, enthusiastically cheering on their kids onstage.
She remembers just a few years ago seeing William Shatner screen one of his movies and then talk onstage afterward — and then she watched as Shatner fans formed a line snaking from the first floor upstairs as they patiently waited to get their picture taken with the erstwhile Captain Kirk.
Engdall recalls, too, a number of men probably in their 30s at that event asking about the Garde. "They said they never saw such a beautiful theater. They said, 'How long has it been here?' They were asking questions. It was all these young men who were amazed."
Engdall said, "The shows are wonderful. People don't realize what we have here."
Volunteers are vital
Jennifer Zembruski, the Garde's managing director, said Engdall and other volunteers are invaluable for institutions like the Garde.
And it's not out of the ordinary for people to have volunteered at the Garde for as long as Engdall has.
"It's wonderful, and I think it's generational," Zembruski said. "Many of the organizations in this state have volunteer programs where you'll find something very similar. People are passionate about their cities, they're passionate about the venue, they're passionate about history. And a lot of them are retirees, so they're looking for a social outlet, too. You tend to see people befriending others, and then the social circle grows from their volunteer stint."
Zembruski said usually performances at the Garde feature four ticket scanners at the entrance, four greeters at the top of the auditorium, and seven ushers who go up and down the aisles.
"When we're running between 80 and 100 shows (a year), that's a lot of volunteer hours," she said, noting that that total doesn't include the movie series, Summer on Stage, and community rentals.
The Garde asks the volunteers to arrive an hour and a half before the show starts so they can scan tickets, help people to their seats, and so on, and also asks them to stay to the end, so they can thank people for coming and help make sure theatergoers have all their items with them when they leave.
From Fred's Shanty to Italy
Engdall and her husband, Bill, moved to their Waterford home 50 years ago. He was in the Navy for 22 years and was part of the first crew of the Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine. They have five grown children.
While she ushers at the Garde now, Ellie Engdall was associated with another New London landmark back in the day. She worked at Fred's Shanty and would, from the venue's window, announce people's orders over the microphone. In fact, that is how she became a tour guide.
Folks from the Kaplan Travel office stopped by for lunch and heard her mellifluous tones over the loudspeaker. They were inspired to ask if she would come in for an interview.
"We like your voice on the mic," she recalled them saying.
They hired her as a tour guide. Engdall ended up being a guide for 35 years, on buses for Kaplan and then flying to Italy with Paragon Tours.
A lot of the bus tour work involved making sure people were entertained during the ride to whatever their destination was. So she would keep things light and lead everyone in playing games, for instance. She also had a personal touch, making an effort to know everyone's first names. Being a tour guide also means knowing information about where the trip is going through and where it's headed.
Engdall led bus tours to New York and Washington, D.C., but "the best trip ever" was the annual 31-day cross-country trips she did five years in a row.
"When they come on the bus, they want to enjoy themselves. They want to have fun. They don't want to just sit there and look at a movie all day," she said.
Being a tour guide and a theater usher have something in common with another job Engdall held when she was a Navy wife: she was a Tupperware lady.
"You have to have your customers happy," she said.
Strength and resilience
Engdall returned to ushering at the Garde as quickly as she could after she "crushed" bones in her hip last autumn. Her doctors said it was like a puzzle they had to put together.
Engdall was gardening in her yard and was pushing a post into the ground, not realizing there was sheet of heavy plastic underneath. The rebound send her falling onto the driveway. She thought she just had a minor injury, but 51 days later, she fell "out of the blue" in her kitchen. That's when she learned from doctors the extent of her earlier injury.
Engdall is not someone who sits still or stays home, though. By the spring, she was back at the Garde. Everyone was concerned about her and suggested she count people as they come in so she could stay in one place, but she wanted to be in her regular spot. There, she could check patrons' tickets and send them down to another usher farther into the auditorium.
Zembruski spoke about Engdall's enthusiastic return to the Garde after her injury.
"Her strength and resilience, her dedication to the institution and the community is second nature to her," Zembruski said. "There's no hiccup. She just keeps on going, and she perseveres. She is the essence of, I think, this New London community pride."