Duty Manager Guidelines
Your committee rep should be in the building when you arrive, check the staffing sheet and make sure everyone is there by the time on the staff sheet. The committee rep will deal with the money.
Pick up the duty manager keys from the fire box beside the door, you must hold on to these until we lock up.
Unlock all the fire exits.
Backstage exit: Unlock the padlock but leave the yale on. You also have to go outside and unlock the gate, make sure nothing out there is obstructing the exit.
Auditorium Exit: Open the fire door, unlock the door and chain each side back securely with the pad locks. Close the inner fire door again.
Front doors: Unlock the padlocks, but leave the bolt on until the building opens.
Make sure all of the staff are wearing the appropriate lanyards, including the committee rep, and know what they are doing; you may need to send one of them out to buy milk for the café or to get change, do this BEFORE the building opens.
If you are buying anything, DO NOT take money out of either of the tills. Use your own money, keep the receipt with your name and what was purchased and the label "incidental purchase" written on the back. Put this in the Business Manager's pigeon-hole.
You should be giving the auditorium/tech box/director calls when the building opens, 30, 15 and 5 minutes before the show and when you open the auditorium.
The building should open 45 minutes before the show starts, when you open the front doors, make sure that they are chained back securely with the padlocks. The FoH boards need to be moved outside and all the staff must be in position and floats in tills. The box office cupboard and stock cupboard should be locked.
The committee rep will release the held back tickets when the doors open.
Keep checking the café and box office have enough change and aren't running into any problems, give shout outs in the front of house for reservations to be collected. 15 minutes before the show, when you are absolutely sure there is no one left to collect reservations, get your committee rep to release the reservations for general sale.
Tell your committee rep when you are going to open the auditorium, do one final check with the cast and crew, prop open the door into the auditorium and then make an announcement to the audience and open the doors.
Ensure everyone in the auditorium is seated in a proper seat, not on the floor or steps or standing, close the café door taking tickets from the outdoor hall keeper, then close the indoor hall side again taking the tickets from the hall keeper. Give a call of clearance up to the tech box by the intercom in the box office.
Once the audience is in, close the doors to the toilet corridor and the café, make sure any FoH music is turned off, especially in the toilet corridor now controlled by a switch above the indoor hall doors.
Count the ticket stubs in the box office; write up a label saying the SHOW, DATE, and the TOTAL NUMBER OF TICKETS. Use a rubber band to tie this with all the ticket stubs and put them in the ticket stub box. If there has been a problem with ticket stubs also write down how many people are actually in the auditorium.
Intervals:
Open the café and toilet corridor doors, check the length of the interval on the Front of house questionnaire (in a folder on the box office computer desktop). Give a call to the auditorium 5 minutes before the end of the interval, again check with the tech box and director before opening the auditorium, make an announcement to the audience and open the doors. Once the audience is re-seated, close the doors and give clearance by the intercom to the tech box.
After the show, get people out of the building as quickly as possible.
Take in any FoH boards and picnic bench and lock the front doors.
Before leaving make sure:
- The staff tidy up
- The cash up is done
- Fire exits are locked
- The front door is locked and cafe boards are locked down (also make sure the committee rep puts the key for the cafe boards back in the key safe).
- Everyone is out of the toilets and auditorium before the building is fully locked
- The lights get turned out, once everyone is out, at the blue light cupboard by the side door. (lights include the office light located inside the office doorway and box office lights, switches at box office)