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Box Office

The Box Office Manager and his/her staff are responsible for the sale of tickets directly from the theatre, by post and through agents. The box office often becomes involved with accounting, promotion and marketing. Ticket selling is at the centre of the theatre's business, and an excellent starting point for learning how theatre works.

See Box Office in discover: Making Theatre  

Everyone Does Everything
The work of the National's Box Office
by Heather Neill (August 1999)

What exactly is a box office? There was a time, not so long ago when tickets were dispensed in most theatres by a few people squashed into a tiny room in the foyer which might well be mistaken for a box. Since computerisation, any theatre with a repertoire as complicated as that at the National has had to provide a good deal more than box-like space for the theatre staff who are in front-line contact with the public.



About 30 people are employed here, answering requests from telephone callers, dealing with advance bookings received by post and selling tickets to people who come in person to the theatre. The hub of this activity is a long office on the fifth floor of the National Theatre building containing 15 or 16 computer terminals and presided over by the box office manager, Michael Straughan.



Straughan has been at the National for 20 years and several of his staff are also long stayers. The secret of such loyalty may be that "everyone does everything". After a stint of answering phones and keying in information, a shift dealing with visitors face-to-face in the bustling NT entrance area provides a welcome contrast. And it is not just a matter of taking money or credit card details in return for a guaranteed place at Candide or Look Back in Anger, a Platform performance or an education event. The first rule is, as Michael Straughan puts it, "to be nice to people". His staff may well be responsible for the theatre-goer's first impression of the administrative "personality" of the National. Customer care is now an acknowledged part of the job.



For their part, box office personnel have to acquire skills akin to those of a sociologist or psychoanalyst. Michael Straughan reckons that plays confer a collective personality on an audience -- he especially warmed to those who bought tickets for The Colleen Bawn earlier this year -- but there are always quirky individuals who need attention. "You'd be surprised how often visitors get the Olivier confused with Oliver! and ask for tickets for the musical. And there are those who come on the wrong night or have lost their tickets."



To try to avoid problems, staff taking bookings by telephone always repeat the salient points - the play, the theatre, the number of tickets, the date and time required -and ask the purchaser to agree. Disasters are, in fact, relatively few now that technology has more or less obviated the usher's nightmare: double bookings.



Some things simply cannot be foreseen, however. If a performance has to be cancelled -- an extremely rare occurrence, but not unknown -- everyone, as far as possible, is contacted and offered a refund or replacement ticket.



In the case of sold-out productions, such as The Merchant of Venice, there isn't an awful lot that can be done to mollify the disappointed. The National's system is as fair as possible, however. There are a number of cheap seats which - are kept to be sold on the day of a performance. Get up really early on the right day and you still have a chance of seeing Henry Goodman's Shylock. If a performance is not sold out, student stand-by tickets are available 45 minutes before the curtain goes up.



There are 31,000 people on the National's mailing list who have the first opportunity to apply for tickets in each booking period. Then telephone booking opens and hundreds of calls flood in. If the office is very busy there may be a period of waiting during which the deputy box office manager, Aidan O'Rourke describes other facilities offered by the National in a recorded message. Calls are answered in a queuing system. A few years ago, one phone was dedicated to credit card bookings; now 90% of business is done by credit card. The next major development will no doubt be a huge increase in the number of people booking from home via the internet.



Credit card information and the efficiency of computer technology provide the box office manager with instant data of interest to the marketing department. Someone who bought tickets to Antony and Cleopatra might be pleased to receive information about Troilus and Cressida, a production which despite excellent reviews, built slowly in box office terms.



Staff at the desk in the main foyer represent the public face of the box office. A constant stream of visitors is dealt with by the people on duty there. Two hours before the performance the smaller offices at each of the three theatre are staffed.



At each theatre, people can pick up pre-booked tickets or buy day tickets if any remain. According to box office supervisor Stephen Watmuff, the minutes before curtain-up can produce a surge of adrenaline. Someone may need a good deal of attention -- perhaps he has lost his ticket or should have been at the theatre the previous evening -- and a queue can quickly develop. Box office staff must remain patient and unruffled by expressions of frustration from the queue, but such moments are not as long as they seem and audience members are almost always seated in time.



The term "box office" by the way, originated in the late eighteenth century. It was the place where you hired your private "box" for a performance -- something which, ironically, the National Theatre does not have.



Heather Neill is Arts Editor of The Times Educational Supplement and writes for the arts pages of other newspapers, including The Times.