Using "The Force" to tap into Little Maria🧜‍♀️ - Summer of The Empire Strips Back

Maria Vandenburg

Nov 22, 2025

3 min read

Updated: Oct 27

Letting the Force Be with Me

The idea of letting the force be with me took on a completely different meaning this summer as I was hired front of house (FOH) for an internationally touring show called the Empire Strips Back.

🎩 Magic Ensued 🎩

Background Context: I am in the midst of a ahem mid life crisis, aka transition to figuring out what is mine to do next. Two years of kicking and screaming (perhaps🙈) of trying to stay (in control) within my professional fied of the last 20+ years (Corporate Tech Project Management)

So what did I do?

Reverted back to working in the field of my dreams (no pun intended)

Arts & Entertainment:

Which has ended up resulting in two part-time jobs that genuinely love

Concessions Supervisor (typically WaFD club) at Climate Pledge
Managing the Donor Lounge of the Seattle Rep.

With the summer, however, came a reduction in hours.... when suddenly the Empire came along

Highlights from my time with Empire Strips Back:

Bonding with the Cast and Crew

Working FOH at the Rep is great, but this honestly felt more behind the teams. I forgot how much I loved and missed the theatre "family "

PS. If you look REAL CLOSE you can see me in my red shirt and

Green Light Sabor ...

guarding the stairs

I remember reaching out to one of the dancers about how amazing I thought she was which she followed with:

"We appreciate y'all more than you could ever know, you calm the chaos"

It was so strange to think of things from that perspective, how being an "usher" really was multifaceted.

The "Politics" of Local Theatre

You wouldn't think there would be crazy dynamics.. but there are.

THE RADIO

There are so many "unofficial rules"

AND

For extra funzies, they change based on company and culture. BUT at this particular theatre....

If you use the radio (which you pretty much have to use but your never told of any protocol). You should telepathically know that:

Every time you go off radio you are expected to radio and say "Maria, is going off radio"
You pretty much should not speak outside of that
You also have to announce when youre back on radio
(So much for not having to ask for permission or publicly announce that youre going to use the restroom).

ALSO...... Only CERTAIN people are allowed to answer CERTAIN things. Le Sigh 🙄

There's more... But that should provide a little background context of how I am still getting over my fear of using the radio

Tech Reversal everyday for THREE MONTHS

So part of my "ushering duties" included making sure that no one attempted to record anything.

I didn't realize that sitting inside the theatre for every single set of a burlesque parody for the entire run was part of the job description 🤣

Needless to say, it took me a second to make peace.....

But then I remembered the original childhood dream and I thought it it as a Tech Rehearsal.

I'm not kidding. I watched the nuances. It was actually pretty amazing. And hard to put into words.

For example, Lindsey, performer mentioned above. One of our last performances her bra snapped. You would think for a burlesque show that's great. No No No No.

It's about the subtlety, it's about the character, it's about the "scared" reveal to astounding confidence

So what does that mean?

Princess Leia (as Lindsey) performed the entire act with one hand. Until the curtain call