Paramount Theatre gets new service coordinator
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on June 20, 2016 11:58 AM
Stephanie Slusser is the new theater service coordinator for the Paramount Theatre. She replaces Vincent Bridgers, who moved to Colorado.
In her new position, the 29-year-old Ms. Slusser will have a variety of duties, including helping with rentals at the theater, making sure the renters have everything they need.
She will also be responsible for doing marketing for the Paramount's Performing Art Series and movie series.
"Sometimes I will work with some of the renters on advertising," Ms. Slusser said. "And when there are events here, I make sure that everything is here that they're going to need."
And she will also schedule staff and sell tickets at the box office.
"One of the things I've enjoyed so far the past couple of weeks is how many community members I've been able to connect with, either because they're coming in to buy tickets or calling about renting," Ms. Slusser said.
She recently finished her master's degree in theater management at Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich. The southeast Georgia native received her bachelor of science degree in theater management from the University of Evansville in southern Indiana.
She has worked at Georgia Ensemble Theatre in Atlanta, where she was the marketing manager for four years.
"I did a lot of drama in high school," Ms. Slusser said. "My dad is a drama teacher so I sort of grew up with it. In high school, I thought I would be a drama teacher and also own my own theater someday. But after my first year of college, I knew that wasn't for me."
Ms. Slusser said she prefers the business side of theater.
"My adviser in college said that theater management is the care and nurture of artists. I like to think of it that way. I want to support what surrounds the arts and make sure there's an audience. You can't do theater if there's nobody to watch it. I like doing that part of it."
Sherry Archibald, director of the Paramount and Goldsboro Event Center said when doing a search for a theater service coordinator, she was looking for someone with graphic skills and someone who was familiar with Publisher, Adobe and InDesign software because the Paramount does all of its own marketing in house.
"We also wanted someone with a working knowledge of theater and someone with customer service experiences," Mrs. Archibald said. "It's hard to find all that together wrapped into one."
Ms. Slusser said there was one particular thing that attracted her to the job.
"It takes all of the things that I've learned in my various education and various job opportunities and takes all of the good parts of those things and puts them into one position," she said. "That's hard to find. I get to do a little bit of it all here, and that's fun."