One of the great Chichester Festival Theatre rituals – if you are sitting in the audience – is watching the member of staff whose job it is to walk up one set of steps, walk across the front of the stage, mutter into a microphone and then disappear down another set of steps.
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00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.
00:06 Really lovely to speak to a very, very familiar face and familiar figure from the Festival Theatre,
00:11 Ben Gearing, Head of Customer Operations.
00:14 Now, Ben, you are the champ who we so often see come up one set of stairs,
00:18 walk across the front of the auditorium, disappear down another set of stairs,
00:23 having given the go-ahead for the whole show.
00:26 What's that all about? It's just checking everything, isn't it?
00:30 Yeah, so we do it for a number of reasons.
00:33 We have to ensure that all the audience have taken their seats, as per our licence.
00:39 And also we're checking all of our key exit routes,
00:43 make sure they're clear of obstructions just before we turn all the lights off and get the show going.
00:48 So there is a reason for it. We're not just walking across the front of the stage.
00:52 Well, to my mind, it feels like absolutely part of the show.
00:56 It's a signal that we can settle down, concentrate and enjoy what's going to happen.
01:00 But for you, it's just part of the much, much wider brief,
01:03 making sure that everything's OK and that everyone is happy, isn't it?
01:08 Absolutely. That's at the heart of what we're trying to achieve,
01:12 is to ensure that everybody has an enjoyable, fun and safe night out.
01:18 But most importantly, they don't have to think about any of those other things.
01:21 We want them to sit back and relax and enjoy the show with minimal interruptions or issues.
01:27 So that's what we're all about.
01:28 How easy is that to achieve? Is everything happening like clockwork in a well-oiled machine?
01:33 On the whole, it's a pretty well-oiled machine.
01:38 I think we're quite proud of that.
01:41 Of course, with live theatre, always things, you know, there's a potential for things to happen unexpectedly.
01:50 But certainly we try and train and plan for any of those things.
01:55 We've got procedures and things in place ready to spring into action should we need to.
02:02 But on the whole, we're pretty fortunate.
02:05 I guess a really key part of your job is the fact that I always think that the
02:09 Finsterville Theatre is so genuinely friendly when you walk in, you get a good vibe.
02:14 You do feel welcomed. And that's something that you are there to create, isn't it?
02:19 Absolutely. Absolutely. Our front of house team are so very passionate about, A, the theatre and B, looking after people.
02:29 That's what we look for when we're when we're recruiting our front of house teams is those two key things.
02:35 You've got to be a people person and you've got to have the ability to put people at ease because, you know,
02:43 as I mentioned, people are there for an enjoyable evening or afternoon out.
02:48 And in a theatre it's funny how far a smile goes, isn't it? I've been to some theatres where no one smiles as you go in.
02:53 But the Festival Theatre, you do see that, don't you?
02:57 I'm grateful that you've spotted it, but I think it is true.
03:03 And that is a testament to the team because it's their faces that you're seeing.
03:10 It's them that are standing at that sales point or on that door checking your ticket or ushering you to your seat.
03:18 It's really down to them. So it's a real team effort.
03:22 And as we all go home, hopefully happy, that's not the end of the evening for you and the team, is it?
03:27 Because there are reports to be written. And you told me something else.
03:31 Yeah. So to an usher, that was great. The chances are that will be noted for the show report.
03:37 Absolutely. We take on all feedback. It's really vital for us to improve what we do, to offer feedback to our creative teams.
03:48 We want to test the temperature of what the audience think of the work that's being put on.
03:52 So if you were to make a comment to a member of the team on your way out of the theatre,
03:58 then that gets fed back to the duty manager on the night and compiled into a report that's sent around key people in the organisation for them to have eyes on.
04:10 Well, I think one of the interesting things in that respect is in the last couple of years,
04:14 there's been so much conversation nationally about poor standards of behaviour from audiences in various places, particularly in musicals.
04:21 People not realising that they're actually sitting in front of live performers.
04:26 Don't get the impression you get bad behaviour too much in the festival theatre, do you?
04:31 We are very fortunate. We are very, very fortunate.
04:34 We see very little issue like lots of our other colleagues in other venues see.
04:41 And I sit in a number of sort of forums for people doing similar jobs in similar venues,
04:47 and I see the emails bouncing around and they're all talking about, you know, whatever they're dealing with in that moment around behaviour in their audiences.
04:55 And I haven't got anything to add really to this conversation.
04:58 So why is it changing in the country? Why is it becoming an issue?
05:02 And more importantly, why isn't it an issue in Chichester? Why are we so well behaved?
05:07 It's a really good question. We're very fortunate.
05:10 We have a we have a an audience who is passionate about theatre on the whole.
05:19 And I think with that comes a level of mutual respect for their fellow audience members.
05:26 And I think that's where the issue in other venues is happening,
05:32 is that it's issue between audience members rather than issue with a venue or a production.
05:39 It is it is around it is around that inter-audience reaction.
05:45 And we just we have a we have a different a different approach here, I guess.
05:51 And that's probably partly to do with the work that's programmed on stage.
05:55 We're not necessarily attracting groups who might be on a night out for other reasons than to purely visit the theatre.
06:07 Yes. Some of the people who are acting. Yeah.
06:11 Yeah. There's a bit of that. We don't see a huge amount of that here.
06:14 And that's that's probably down to programming.
06:17 And therefore people aren't necessarily coming into the theatre to get, you know, a few more drinks down than they maybe should.
06:27 I think often these things are alcohol fuelled and we just don't we don't see that type of behaviour here.
06:32 We're very fortunate. And just a few weeks before you roll again for the new season.
06:37 Excited. Not long to go. Really excited. It's it's Justin's first season.
06:42 And of course, that brings a whole additional level of excitement to what we would normally experience.
06:48 Everything's going swimmingly so far, which is brilliant. The other Berlin girl had its first day of rehearsals yesterday.
06:55 Really? Up in London. Yeah. And I think that's going to be a stunning, stunning piece.
07:02 I was looking at some of the images of the set design and costume design the other week.
07:10 And I think it's going to be an epic. So we're really excited.
07:14 We're really, really excited to get going again, because this period of time between the last night of the winter season and the first preview of the festival
07:24 can feel quite long, although it's a very busy time for us.
07:28 Back of house and preparations and recruitment and all that sort of thing.
07:34 It also the building doesn't feel quite right without productions going on in the auditoriums.
07:41 They were not far now. Not long to go. Brilliant.
07:44 Well, really lovely to speak to the man who goes up one set of steps, walks across and does so much else besides, of course.
07:53 Lovely to speak to you Ben, thank you. Thank you.