FRONT OF HOUSE

Whilst you are at The Miskin Theatre you will be required to do Front of House duties.

CONTENTS

∑ What is FOH?
∑ What are your responsibilities?
∑ Meeting and greeting
∑ Health and safety
∑ FOH manager
∑ Doing Front of House
∑ Getting told the date you are doing FOH
∑ What you wear
∑ FOH    badges
∑ Torches
∑ Radio and Headsets
∑ Radio and Headsets continue MR GREEN
∑ FOH signing in sheet
∑ Cleaning
∑ Fire Evacuation Assembly Point.
∑ MAIN SPACE
∑ STUDIO SPACE
∑ Position Guide

WHAT IS FOH?

Whilst you are here you will gain a huge amount of
hands on experience creating and making theatre. You will also be required to learn the skills of how Front of House runs and put them into operation, working Front of The house.

Anything which happens on the audience side of the curtain is said to happen "front of house". The term "the house" is used to mean either the auditorium, or the audience ("We had a good house tonight"), or even the theatre itself.

Front of House staff are responsible for dealing with the audience and are the key workers in any theatrical enterprise.


This is now your Theatre so it is your responsibility to treat it as if it were your home, treat Punters (audience members) as visitors, not strangers.



WHAT ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES?


Meeting and greeting

 The FOH staff play a big part of the public relations at the Miskin Theatre.
It is you that greets the members of public on the frontline at each performance, so it is imperative that you remain focused, friendly and on first-class customer service, making the public feel relaxed and enthusiastic, so they are eager to return to see another show.

During the show you will have a variety of responsibilities depending on where you are placed. You will learn them throughout this guide, so you understand all positions.

Health and safety

Health and safety is everyone’s responsibility. Everyone working within the FOH team must consider their own and others safety- we have a duty to assess the risks of every activity undertaken and to eliminate or significantly minimize them. At the Miskin this is particularly the case, as the theatre activities do not tend to be repetitive, so we are always facing new health and safety situations.

This guide will explain everything you need to know about FOH, and you will be expected to learn it all.


FOH MANAGER

The Front of House Manager is the member of staff who is managing the show on the night; this will change from show to show.
The manager is responsible for over seeing everything and making sure all is run smoothly. They will allocate the position you will be standing in and deal with any problems.

The FOH manager will also be marking your performance and level of professionalism on the night. It is your responsibility to work to the highest standard to help it run, as it should.



DOING FRONT OF HOUSE

I will now take you through your FOH duties in more detail.

GETTING TOLD THE DATE YOU ARE DOING FOH

When you get given the date when you are needed for FOH it is non negotiable, this means you have to do it. This is because as a professionally run theatre which the general public visit we have responsibilities which we have to fulfil to legally open the theatre. So we have to rely on each other to get these shows out, whether you are in it or supporting it, the job is just as important. We are all the people who make it happen and WITHOUT FRONT OF HOUSE STAFF THE SHOW/GIG CAN’T GO OUT!


WHAT YOU WEAR

Whatever looks absolutely lovely. Dress up! Dress so you are formal and distinguished from the public, this is the main purpose.
No jeans, no casual clothes; men in suits and women in equivalent. Feel good, feel confident and take ownership of the theatre. Look the part, feel the part, and be the part!

FRONT OF HOUSE BADGES

You will be expected to put a deposit of £1.00 down for your own personal FOH badge. You will be required to bring it with you whenever you do Front of House. Failure do to this will result in paying a £1.00 replacement fee.

TORCHES

You will get given a torch on the night. It will be numbered and you will sign it out. This means you are responsible for the torch whilst you have it.

RADIO AND HEADSETS

Depending on your position, you will be given a radio and headset. This should match the number on your torch and you will sign it out.
Your headset plugs into the side of the radio.
The radio has two buttons that twist at the top of the radio

 Headset                    
       Ø                 
                
 

     Radio                               
        Ø

 Two twist buttons (on/off and channel number)
        Ø     
             
                                                             
 RADIO AND HEADSETS Continued

We use Radios for FOH for Health and Safety reasons that affect everyone in the building. It enables us to communicate to each other in an event of a fire or anything hazardous happening. It should not be used for general chit chat . The Front of House manager may use the radio to contact you.

When you receive your radio at the beginning of the FOH shift, you will do a radio check.
You will check you are on the same channel as everybody else (normally channel 9) and that your headset is working properly. It is important that you wear your headset at all times, so you can hear what is going on and it is important that the audience does not hear it blasting through the radio.

On the side of the radio there is a button. If you hold this down and talk through it, everyone on the same channel will hear you.

In case of a fire the emergency code for fire is
MR GREEN IN …… (in area the fire is) This is a code to prevent mass panic  It is important to REMEMBER this.


Example:

MR GREEN IN BACK CORRIDOR means fire in back corridor!


FOH SIGNING IN SHEET

Ok. You are dressed the part, you have arrived at least an hour and half before the show starts and you are wearing your FOH badge so it can be clearly seen. Now you need to sign in using the signing in sheet that the FOH manage will put out on ticket desk.


CLEANING

Now you have signed in you get straight to work. The theatre needs to be spotless and welcoming before the audience arrive. It is your job to make it look fantastic.

There is a box of cleaning products that you will get your materials from.

There are a few things that are essential. Please make yourself familiar with the list below and on the night make sure it happens.

∑ The auditorium (seating area in the theatre) is clean and tidy.
∑ All toilets are clean and have plenty of toilet rolls
∑ Foyer area hovered and polished
∑ Back foyer (swimming pool area) needs to be spotless
∑ Production office corridor needs to be clear and no water on floor
∑ The front of the theatre needs to be swept.
∑ Everything should be clean tidy and ready to go!
 
Fire Evacuation Assembly Point.

The Fire Evacuation Assembly point for the theatre is the Front exit car park (out of foyer doors on the left).

It is important that you know all the fire exits for the theatre, you should know the route to the fire assembly point from any of these exits.
Remember! If there is a fire, the audience need to be directed away from it, so you may have to use any of these exits.

You will learn the locations of the fire extinguishers and what they are for in your induction session.

Remember we are a public theatre and thousands of people come here every year. It is important we know how to cope if there is a problem

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