A bit belatedly, a few thoughts on manning a table at the annual Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Flea Market.
For those who aren’t familiar with it, the Flea Market is one of the many elaborate and entertaining fund raisers runs each year by BC/EFA. In this case, they take over 44th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, as well as Shubert Alley, for shows and theatrical organizations to run a giant tag sales of theatre related items ranging from signed souvenirs of current shows to classic Playbills and everything in between.
Standing behind a selling table gives a unique perspective on the event, since you get a chance to size up the attendees. Here’s how they generally break down:
The obsessed collectors – these are the folks who are there at the crack of dawn trying to be first at the tables that promise the greatest rewards. Armed with detailed lists of what they need for their collection, they are prone to asking very specific questions about particular items – which is daunting when you’re presiding over six boxes filled willy-nilly with donated ephemera. Though they must take pleasure in their private mini-museums, these folks are on the hunt, and have little time for fun.
The bargain hunters – this category is made up of the theatre fans who would like a little bit of history, but perhaps don’t have the means to build a personal archive. So they’re looking for only a handful of items, and seem to enjoy whiling away hours strolling from table to table, for whatever they might find.
The singular fan – related to the obsessive collectors, except that they are deeply passionate about a single show or performer. They skip from table to table, asking the same question at each one: “Do you have anything with [for example] Kristin Chenoweth?” Given an affirmative answer, they’ll grab what’s there; given an uncertain response, they may riffle through unorganized items, but you get a sense they’re not very happy about it.
The casual lookers – I suspect these are the people who happen upon the flea market, rather than seek it out: the tourists strolling Times Square, the family attending a matinee, the couple that wandered in off of the concurrent street fair on Eighth Avenue (not realizing they’ve left the land of tube socks and hot sausages for something more rareified). They might stop to chat, but just as often they seem confused by the thematically consistent nature of the merchandise at each and every table.
The philanthropists – These are the folks who turn out just to be supportive. They have probably decided how much they want to donate to BC/EFA, and they’re spending the day figuring out what they might want to take home. Falling into the latter category, I walked away with the decidedly untheatrical box set of the complete episodes of the British TV series Secret Agent. Frankly, I have plenty of Playbills.
I offer this who’s who as a tribute to theatre’s fans, whatever their shopping philosophy. It’s a treat to chat with the die-hard fans, the folks who probably also people the chat rooms and who participate in theatre lotteries so they can see Rent for the 54th time. Bless ‘em all.
Posted on Friday, October 12th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
by
Howard Sherman
Filed under:
Uncategorized.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the
RSS 2.0 feed.
You can
leave a response, or
trackback from your own site.
Leave a Reply
