Volunteer Requirements for all Families

Bay Area eTc relies on its volunteers to ensure a quality mainstage production. We need your skills, time, talents, enthusiasm, patience, knowledge, willingness to learn, and sense of humor!

For each mainstage show, our family volunteers typically donate over a thousand hours of their time to support the production. But it's a lot of fun! We pride ourselves on being a family organization where parents, siblings, grandparents, and friends build skills, make friends, and have fun while "doing theater", which is defined in more ways than one!

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Mandatory Volunteer Commitment

The minimum participation requirement is thirty (30) volunteer hours per household. NO EXPERIENCE IS NEEDED! Our production staff and committee coordinators will help guide you through any tasks needed. This includes any set construction or costume work. It's fun and you can learn new skills to boot!

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Each family should plan to spread out their volunteer hours for both pre-show committee tasks (set construction, costumes, etc.) as well as in-show duties (deck crew, front of house, chaperoning, etc.) during the performance run. Extended family, friends, and other interested volunteers are welcome to work on the show alongside the parents, all under the guidance of our costume and set designers. Younger volunteers can also help, but must be supervised and be able to follow instructions. 

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Volunteer sign-up URLs and/or physical sign-up sheets will be provided at the mandatory parent/guardian meeting on August 30, 2025.​

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If a family is in danger of not fulfilling the volunteer commitment, steps are taken in the following order: 1) a friendly mid-production phone call or email inquiring why the commitment is not being kept; 2) a buyout fee of $20 per hour for hours not fulfilled will be added to the family's account.

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Younger Volunteers

Yes, volunteering can be a full family affair! We encourage younger siblings, relatives, and friends of performers to contribute to the production of the show, under our guidance. Depending on the task and available supervision, we may have minimum age requirements to ensure the safety of all volunteers; please reach out to us at show@bayareaetc.org and let's chat! 

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Mandatory Load-in and Strike

In addition to the 30-hour volunteer commitment, each family is required to participate in LOAD-IN (transport of set pieces from the warehouse to the theater and its construction on site) and STRIKE (disassembling sets and transporting back to the warehouse after the last show). These work days are mandatory for all families and do not count toward the 30 volunteer hours.​

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Volunteer Buyout Option

While our strong preference is for all families to be involved in the production (remember, extended family and friends can help you with this!), we understand that parents and guardians often have many competing time commitments and may be unable to fulfill the 30-hour volunteer requirement. Families can purchase a volunteer requirement buyout option for $750 during the online registration process if they are unable to volunteer 30 hours over the rehearsal and production period. Please note that families purchasing the family buyout option must still participate in LOAD-IN and STRIKE.​