Spotlight On: Floor Manager Karen Moore

When self-proclaimed people-person and social butterfly Karen Moore left behind her career in finance in pursuit of a happier life, never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that she’d find it working for the opera. She’d never thought the performing arts were for her. But that changed in 2020, when the pandemic turned her life on its head. Now she works as a Floor Manager with Houston Grand Opera, coordinating, supervising, and mentoring the company’s ushering staff while ensuring that every operagoer’s experience at the Wortham Theater Center is as grand as the art they love.  

Here’s Karen on her life and career, in her own words:  

I worked for MetLife, which is a really good company. I had flexible hours and got to work from home, so that part was great. It was just the task at hand that was difficult, because finance is already stressful, and on top of that I handled divorce settlements—one of the most stressful things you can imagine. I was dreaming about cases. It was that bad.  

I ended up here because of COVID. COVID changed my entire life. My husband got sick, and we lost people. It was what I needed to stop, reflect, and look at life and ask, what do I want out of this? There were great moments, but at the end I was like, you know what? I don’t want to wake up in the morning and open my laptop and cry. So, I left.  

After that, I sold my home in Tulsa and moved out to Humble. I live there with my eldest daughter and my two grandkids, Jaela and Julian. They’re the whole reason I moved to Texas. I love my life right now because the grandbabies are 5 and 9, and this job is flexible, so I get to spend time with my daughter and my grandkids whenever I’m not doing the ushering. I’ve self-retired, but they keep me busy and entertained! (laughs) 

I found out about HGO when a friend of my daughter’s reached out to me and said, hey, this place is looking for people. The inner workings of ushers had never crossed my mind before, but I’ve always been in customer service, so I reached out to a lady who worked here, and she said, oh, they would love you over at HGO. After that I interviewed with the Guest Experiences team, and I’ve been here ever since. 

I hadn’t seen an opera before coming here. It seemed stuffy to me. You know, not being exposed to it, I really thought snooty people attended the theater. Intelligence was the first opera I was exposed to, and I tell you, when I saw it, I was like—my god, I found it. I found what I like. I realized I’d been missing out on the arts world. Plus, the people are just wonderful. They’re committed to this. They support it. And I like just being here to help them out.  

My commute into downtown is stressful, but at the same time, I’m happy that I’m in a city where I can do a job that I like. You need to enjoy ushering. Wanting to be of service to somebody—I just think that has to be in you to do the job well. And so, the people that I work with here love it. They either love the job, or they love the arts.  

I think you have to be passionate about what you’re doing. You’ve got to get something out of this other than just a paycheck. It’s not about money to me, to the people here. That’s what I love about it. And so many of them have been here for a long time—10, 20, 30 years. Having people that have been here that long says something about this place. I never thought about doing this before, and now I wouldn’t do anything else.