Taking it all in for nearly 20 years

Jeff Benson

A Huntington Beach couple are showing that you don’t have to be a

stage performer to stand out at the Orange County Performing Arts

Center. Sometimes you just need to stick around awhile.

Helen Weeks, a 79-year-old opera and ballet buff, said she felt

compelled to volunteer at the center when she witnessed its

construction in 1986. Then she convinced her husband, Homer, 81, to

join her.

“At times, there are 500 volunteers here,” Helen Weeks said. “I

don’t think there are that many now. But there are only a couple

ushers who have been here as long as we have. And Homer’s become

quite a music fan, too.”

The Texas natives, who began volunteering as ushers and later

moved on to being ticket-takers, now donate their time by mailing

information on the center’s performances and news releases to media

organizations.

“We’ll mail things to announcers of radio stations, newspapers,

mostly businesses and critics,” Homer Weeks said. “And we send things

to schools, colleges, college newspapers and TV stations. There’s a

lot to send out.”

The job suits the couple, who spend at least three hours each

month getting the word out.

“I loved it when we first started because we got to watch the

shows, and we came from a place where they had no shows,” Helen Weeks

said. “It’s our home away from home.”

The Orange County Performing Arts Center has seen its share of

memorable performances, but the Weekses have also remembered some of

the patrons’ greatest gaffes. There was the time when a man managed

to drive his car up to the orchestra level via the parking garage

walkway. And at least one person each night mistakes Segerstrom Hall

for South Coast Repertory, he said.

“The strangest thing is when people come for one of the downtown

[Los Angeles] theaters, like Dorothy Chandler or somewhere. They get

a ticket for something up there, and then they come here. A lot of

people have a hard time finding this place.”

The two said they’ve become quite distinguishable from the number

of college-age volunteers the center gets each year. A big incentive

to stay has been Homer Weeks’ former employer, Exxon, which has

donated money for every hour the Weekses have volunteered, he said.

The center is seeking volunteer ushers, docents and ambassadors to

assist with performances and daily operations, he said.