Ruby Berger, who volunteers as an usher at local theaters, lives in Boynton Beach in a home that features her eclectic collection of artwork. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Jan Norris
Have you been to a live theater performance in Palm Beach County lately? If so, you’ve likely been seated by Ruby Berger — or, seated next to her.
Berger volunteers as an usher at nearly every live theater venue around. A professional usher, as it were.
“Yes,” she said, a smile in her voice. “I guess you can say that. A super volunteer, maybe.”
She’s one of the original greeters-and-seaters at Delray Beach’s Arts Garage.
“I’m the only one who’s been ushering all 11 years since it opened,” Berger said.
You can find the 76-year-old Berger seating patrons at the Lake Worth Playhouse, the Wick Theatre in Boca Raton, the Delray Beach Playhouse and the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.
And when she’s not at a theater, as an usher or patron, or traveling abroad, Berger is an avid dancer — an Argentine tango dancer. She’s been to Argentina five times to learn more about the art. It’s her true passion, she said.
She puts on her flouncy, blood-red dress and strappy heels two or three times a month to tango at the Goldcoast Ballroom in Coconut Creek.
She has been an usher since she moved to Florida in 2005.
“I mostly just greet the patrons and help them find their seats,” Berger said.
She said she seldom if ever sees the ugly side of audiences. No fights have taken place on her watch.
“Everyone is nice,” Berger said. If there’s a problem, it’s usually because someone has the wrong seat. “I just ask them to move, and they do.”
She does have tips for the public, to keep things running smoothly on both the patrons’ and theaters’ ends: “Get your tickets early, especially to popular plays, so you aren’t disappointed if they sell out.
“Get to the theater early, and have your tickets at hand.”
Ask an usher if you would like help finding your seats, she said. Tell the usher if someone else is in your seat so she or he can sort it out.
Berger, a Boynton Beach resident, also volunteers at special events at the venues, such as last month’s luncheon for police officers at the Arts Garage.
In season, she volunteers at least twice a week, she said.
If she’s not volunteering, Berger is in the audience enjoying the performance — watching and judging performances like the aspiring actress she used to be.
All the plays are equally exciting to her; she won’t name favorites. There are some she’s not so fond of, but all, she said, have some good points.
“Dramas, musicals, I just love the performing arts,” Berger said. “And visual arts. Museums and art galleries. All the arts, really.”
Berger, a New Jersey native, fell in love with the theater as a child. “I grew up in Fair Lawn, and lived in East Brunswick and Edgewater.” That was close enough to New York City to draw her into Broadway and other arts venues.
“When I was old enough, every week I’d take the bus into the city, and visit the museums and theaters,” she said. “I’d always go on Wednesdays when you could get the half-price tickets ... to Broadway matinees.”
Her goal, though, was to be on stage. “I wanted to be an actor ever since I was a little girl,” she said.
After getting a degree in art from Rutgers University, she followed her dream, and eventually enrolled in the Actors Studio in Manhattan. Although she landed a few television commercials, her acting career ended with those.
Her performances did not, however. They took a hiatus while she helped run a furniture business with her now former husband. But after she moved to Florida, she began taking ballroom dance lessons. She was struck by the passion of the South American tango and made it a focus of her lessons. That resulted in her traveling to Argentina to learn from the masters.
“It’s art. It’s a play with dialogue between the dancers,” she said, explaining how the sensual beat and perfectly synchronized movements of the dancers fascinate her.
Add in traveling for pleasure to museums around the world, a few days at the gym and all that volunteer work, she’s a busy woman.
Asked about the future of live theater with waning ticket sales in some venues and elderly arts patrons, she was optimistic — with a 76-year-old’s perspective.
“Well, the audiences here are mostly elderly, it’s true,” she said. “But we do have some in their mid-50s who attend regularly.”
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