Accolade for longest-serving member of staff at Chichester Festival Theatre
Theatre manager Janet Bakose is the winner of The Stage Awards Unsung Hero Award 2024 – and typically, she says she would never have gone to London to receive it had she known that that was why she was going to London.
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00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.
00:07 Lovely to speak to Janet Backos, who is the Theatre Manager at Chichester Festival Theatre.
00:12 Now, longevity in any job, and I have to say, is a good thing, isn't it?
00:16 And you have just been rewarded for that.
00:18 You have just been given a fabulous award, the Stage Awards Unsung Hero Award 2024,
00:26 marking 45 years as an unsung hero.
00:30 Now, you were saying so intriguingly that there's no way you would have gone and received this award had you known you were getting it.
00:38 Absolutely right. I have always preferred not to be in the limelight.
00:45 I'm very happy to have been working at CFT for such a long time.
00:50 I've been offered great opportunities and I've always taken them.
00:54 One of my great fears would be having to go on stage in any capacity.
01:00 So I've always been very happy being back of house or front of house manager, but not actually going up on stage.
01:08 So those two words, unsung hero, sum it up perfectly then, don't they?
01:12 I think they do, actually. It was a complete shock.
01:16 I had no idea I was going to London to receive that award.
01:20 Looking back on it now, I think it's a lovely, lovely award to have been given.
01:25 You should feel incredibly proud, really, shouldn't you?
01:28 I am proud of it because I think it does sum up what I've done.
01:34 Absolutely. And you've been there effectively for, what, three quarters of the theatre's existence, haven't you?
01:40 That sounds very frightening.
01:43 But when you look back, how come you've stayed so long, do you think? What is it?
01:48 You say you fell in love with the theatre very quickly in that first season, 1978, when you joined.
01:53 What made the theatre special and is still special now, do you think?
01:57 I think it has some sort of magic.
02:01 I know so many people who I've met on route.
02:05 And a lot of them are still here.
02:08 And everybody who's worked here always wants to come back to CFT to work again, or they have really fond memories.
02:16 It's a very special place.
02:18 There are a few people that it doesn't quite work for, and they tend not to hang around very long.
02:23 But I think there is something about it.
02:26 And the fact that it's in Chichester, I'm a local girl as well.
02:30 It's extraordinary that we've managed to create and carry on with such a successful theatre.
02:37 Create and survive, especially when you bear in mind the pandemic.
02:41 And you were saying, obviously, pretty awful low point, but the theatre has come back so strong from that, hasn't it?
02:47 In a way that some theatres haven't.
02:50 Yes, and I think, again, we were really lucky because the support we received from our friends and people who would be coming to the theatre,
03:01 they were very generous.
03:03 They didn't ask for money back and we had to cancel production.
03:07 They supported us through it.
03:09 And when we did come back, we didn't have the same audience numbers, but we were very lucky we still had good audience numbers.
03:18 And I think that's a mark of the way people feel about the theatre.
03:23 And hopefully it shows the way we look after our audience.
03:27 And do you think we're pretty much back to normal now, post-pandemic?
03:30 Almost.
03:32 I think it is a little.
03:34 I think people have got very much into the habit of booking very late.
03:38 It only ever used to be a young person's way of operating, but we have noticed it more and more.
03:46 People are reluctant to book too far ahead.
03:49 But that may also be the current financial climate that is impacting on that.
03:54 But it has been a fabulous story of survival.
03:57 And part of that is the welcome that you give at the Festival Theatre, isn't it?
04:01 And that's always been absolutely crucial to your approach to work, isn't it, to make sure people feel properly welcomed at the theatre?
04:09 Yeah, I think it makes a real difference.
04:11 It needs to be genuine that you're doing, you're not just doing a job.
04:15 You absolutely want people to enjoy their time in the theatre and you need to do whatever to make that happen.
04:24 It's giving them a bit of magic, isn't it, I think.
04:27 Like they always used to say, the theatre is magic.
04:29 Yes, and that's the thing, isn't it?
04:31 The very best shows really do stay in your mind for a long time.
04:35 So if I was really unfair and asked you to mention just a couple of shows that really stand out in your memory that you've seen, what would they be?
04:44 I think one of the first was Sweeney Todd.
04:47 And I think that's because it was such a different production for us to have put on.
04:54 And we had made such a fantastic use of the stage.
04:59 It was brilliant.
05:01 I love Stephen Sondheim's work.
05:03 And we hadn't done Sondheim here, I think, for a very long time, maybe not since A Little Night Music, which was maybe in the 80s.
05:13 And the cast was extraordinary.
05:15 So I think that was quite a turning point.
05:18 Other shows that I've loved along the way, I loved something that Patrick did, which was in the year, he did The Myth for Girls, and then he did Underneath the Arches.
05:33 I was Christmas, wasn't I?
05:35 Yeah, and I think Underneath the Arches was another show that really stuck with me, because it was Chesney Allen himself coming on and joining the show.
05:47 So one minute there was a revolve on the stage and a bench, and it would start off with Chris Timothy singing Underneath the Arches.
05:56 And then as it came round, he was replaced by Chesney Allen.
06:00 And that moment was so special.
06:03 The audience were just completely, you know, blown away by it.
06:08 And that was a show that really connected with its audience.
06:12 And it was very clever that Patrick chose it.
06:15 You mentioned Patrick, and I remember Patrick as such a genuinely lovely man.
06:19 And the interesting thing is that you've seen quite a succession of artistic directors, and that presumably helps maintain the interest.
06:26 It renews the theatre, doesn't it?
06:28 Yeah, and I think it's interesting because originally, when I was first there, every artistic director was only supposed to do three years.
06:38 And that was kind of the reason for it, was because they thought it would be really good to constantly change.
06:44 But of course, we ended up with Jonathan Church and Alan Finch, I think for 11 years.
06:51 And you could never say that that wasn't a good period in our time.
06:55 It was a fight for zero, wasn't it?
06:56 Exactly. It's what's kind of brought us to where we are now.
07:00 I think they were the people who created that.
07:03 And it's exciting now to have the new incumbent, Justin.
07:06 Yes.
07:07 He's a season just ahead.
07:08 Yes. So the season announced, it's just gone on sale, and it's looking as if it's going to be a really strong season.
07:16 Personally, I'm really intrigued by the final one about the Rolling Stones.
07:24 Oh, me too. Me too. Absolutely. And so intriguing, it's on the main house stage, not the Minerva.
07:30 So there'll be so many people in our audience who have actually grew up in Chichester at that time when it was going on.
07:36 They'll have amazing memories.
07:38 Fabulous. Brilliant. Well, lovely to speak to you and huge congratulations on the award.
07:43 It's really significant and it's incredibly well deserved. So thank you so much and congratulations.
07:48 Thank you, Phil. That's really kind of you.