“There aren’t so many rules for our volunteers, ” said Daniella Topol, the artistic director of Rattlestick. “The most important thing to us is that the audience feels welcomed and respected.”

Jordan Barbakoff, 61, a retired systems engineer and a frequent volunteer at the York Theater, the Mint and the American Airlines Theater, said that the work sounds easy enough, “but there are people who shouldn’t be ushers.” He added: “They just don’t get it when the house manager tells them that the odd-numbered seats are on this side of the aisle and even-numbered seats on the other side.”

And of course there are volunteers who do the bare minimum of what is asked, so they can see the show gratis. House managers maintain a black list of those who don’t wear the proper clothes, follow directives, show enough initiative, arrive on time or at all.

And don’t get Mr. Ponce started on the volunteers who complain about the location of their seats. “We just guarantee that they’ll see the show,” he said. “Sometimes they have to sit on a stool in the back. This is not a right. It’s a privilege.”

For their part, volunteers bemoan the frequent turnover among house managers, and thus the need to prove themselves again and again.