Meet Ellen Woods, Paris Guest Relations Queen

Hey everyone!  I’m Ellen Woods, and I work in Marketing and Internal Communications here at Theatre in Paris. I’m originally from the Chicago area and I am currently pursuing a dual degree in Theatre & Performance Studies and Symbolic Systems at Stanford University. I won’t bore you with the details of the Symbolic Systems program; essentially think of it as Linguistics and Computer Science with a few other things peppered in. 

My favourite part of my job is doing what we call an accueil, which is a pre-show welcome service we provide for our theatre-goers. In this service, someone from the team (at the moment, yours truly) meets our guests at the theatre with English-language programs and walks them through the history of the theatre, some background on the playwright, cast, and director, and a general overview of the plot. I love public speaking (hence the acting degree), so it’s always fun for me! The accueil is a great way for our guests to get a little crash course in French theatrical traditions before seeing the show, and I always enjoy meeting our guests from all around the world.

"Behind the scenes" at the Theatre in Paris HQ, I take care of a lot of different types of tasks in my role. On any given day, you can find me wrangling some numbers from ticket sales and website traffic, toggling between monster Excel sheets, proofreading translations, writing social media posts, and more. Theatre in Paris has been a great place to work—the office space is incredibly lively, the rest of the team is super welcoming, and there’s an open espresso machine in the kitchen. I’ve been able to combine a wide range of my interests and parts of both of my majors, from writing to number-crunching to, of course, theatre. More importantly, I’ve gotten the chance to interact with people from all over the world!