My Job Roles

Front of House Manager

Front of House: is the portion of a performance venue that is open to the public. In theatre and live music venues, it is the auditorium and foyer, as opposed to the stage and backstage areas.

A Front of House Manager is responsible for leading the Front of House team, delegating duties and ensuring all are on task throughout the preparation and running of each show.

Further Responsibilities include:

Ticket Sales/Distribution: Before Tickets go on sale, a count of the seats within the auditorium has to be taken to ensure that tickets aren’t oversold. Selling more tickets than seats available is a health and safety hazard by loading the space with more people than its maximum capacity. On the Nights of the performance, certain tickets and seats will be reserved for special guests e.g. Governors and Staff family members. These tickets will be kept behind the Box Office and issued out to the appropriate audience member that has paid for that ticket. Regarding reserved seats, The FOH Manager is responsible for printing out ‘reserved’ signs and placing them on the seats desired by the guest.

Welcoming Guests: Customer Service is an essential part of the Front of House Experience. An Audience member’s first impression of the venue comes from the Front of House Team.  The FOH is responsible for issuing specific greeting roles to those within the team, ensuring they treat paying audience members with the upmost politeness and care.  It is also important to be helpful at all times to the paying audience, guiding them to their seats, directing them to the venue’s facilities etc.

Refreshments: During the interval or before a performance, refreshments are likely to be offered/sold to the audience. The FOH Manager is responsible for delegating tasks to his/her team to ensure the foyer is set up accordingly and that these refreshments are distributed appropriately. After the audience re enter the auditorium, the FOH Manager must ensure all relevant areas are cleaned and returned to their original state. This is also the case once the Audience leaves the venue.

 

 

 

 

Crew

 

‘Crew’ being a somewhat ambiguous term, a crew member has many different responsibilities, and in larger scale productions, these responsibilities may be more defined to one crew member.

“Running crew is a collective term used in theatre to describe the members of the technical crew who supervise and operate ("run") the various technical aspects of the production during a performance. While the "technical crew" includes all persons other than performers involved with the production, such as those who build and take down the sets and place the lighting, the term "running crew" is generally limited to those who work during an actual performance.”

Crew is devised up of many different positions:

Stage Management

Assistant Stage Manager: Will assist the Stage Manager in their duties, usually one per show and helps run the smooth operating of backstage aspects of the performance.
Props: Responsible for maintenance and placement of hand props before scenes as well as their subsequent retrieval after the scene.
Call boy: responsible for alerting actors and actresses of their entrances in time for them to appear on stage, on cue.

Stage

Flymen (or fly crew / rail crew): operate the fly system, a system of ropes or wires, pulleys and counterweights by means of which scenery is "flown" in and out (down and up, respectively) during scene changes.
Stagehand: A technician responsible for moving scenery at the stage level, by manually carrying or rolling set pieces (e.g., scenery wagons) between the stage and the wings. This can include carrying on and off furniture, props, or scenery.

Wardrobe

Wardrobe: A "dresser" (who works for Wardrobe) is responsible for maintenance and placement of costumes, as well as assisting performers in getting into and out of costumes.
Wigs/Makeup: responsible for applying or assisting in the application of face and body paints, wigs and hairpieces, etc.