FOH Management

FOH Management

Manager

Responsible for the care and well-being of the audience and the areas of the theatre which the audience uses. Responsibilities include:
making sure the house (seating are and lobby) are ready for the audience;

• supervising the taking of tickets, seating of audience, and, sometimes, the sale of “at the door” tickets;
• informing the Stage Manager when the audience is in place;
• overseeing the intermission, including refreshments, music, etc.; flashing the lights at the intermission end and informing the Stage Manager when the audience is re-seated;
• supervising the safe and efficient exiting of the audience when the show is over;
• sometimes supervising the superficial clean-up of the house (picking up discarded programs, tickets, cups and refreshment wrappers, etc.) after the audience has left.

Ushers

The Ushers, usually engaged on a show-by-show basis in exchange for the chance to see the show for free, assist the Front of House manager. Specific responsibilities may include:

• taking tickets at the door to the theatre;
• greeting the audience at the theatre doors, handing them playbills and showing them to their seats;
• holding late-comers outside the doors until an appropriate moment to seat them and then unobtrusively showing them to their seat’;
• dealing with any audience disruptions including flash photography, mobile phone users, disruptive audience members, sickness, fights, emergencies of any kind;
• sometimes, helping the Front of House Manager get the house ready before the performance and straighten up after the audience leaves.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 24 October 2006 )