Finborough Theatre, Earl's Court. (27th January- 22nd February) - Box Office.

My main job throughout my internship at the Finborough was to run Box Office for either the matinee or evening show alongside the General Manager, and 2 other interns. 

Around an hour and a half before the Box Office opened the General Manager would print off the tickets sheet from online and I would have to use this to fill in the returns sheet. 

This is an example of what the ticket sheet looked like once printed out: 

1.

A similar sheet is printed out in the same format for comps, press and ticket buyers that haven't already paid for their ticket: 

2.

The ticket sheet states the surname and forename of the audience member, how many tickets they have purchased and the price of the ticket. Ticket prices range from around £10-18. Standard tickets are £18 and concession tickets (students and pensioners) are less. 

This is an example of what the returns sheet looked like once I had finished filling it in: 

3.

At the top of the sheet, I would have to write the name of the production e.g 'Carthage', the day, the date and what type of show it is e.g matinee or evening. I would then fill out the sheet with the surnames of the audience members who had confirmed that they were still attending the performance.

The surname of the ticket buyer is written on the spaces provided. The ticket price is written next to it. For example, 'Laser' purchased 2 tickets; one ticket was £16 and the other was £10. The line underneath is marked with a '-"-' to represent the second ticket. (See above photo) 

I would fill the comp, press and 'to pay' tickets in afterwards. A similar process would happen - the surname of the ticket holder would be written in the space provided, followed by a small C in the corner (comp), a small P (press) and '16' (to pay £16 at box office). 

I would then have to transfer this information onto the actual tickets themselves. Here is an example: 

4.

On the back of the tickets I would write the surname of the ticket buyer and how many tickets they have. For example, 'Adams x 1' (see photo no.4). As you can see from the picture above, all of the tickets are numbered. This number has to match the number next to the surname on the returns sheet. Comp and Press tickets are displayed at the front of the box. 

Myself and another intern would then have to set up Box Office for an hour before the show is scheduled to start. 'Person number 1' deals and speaks with the customers and 'person number 2' gives out tickets and handles the money if ticket buyers purchase programmes. We would have the completed returns sheet, the original ticket sheet, the Box Office float and programmes on display. If someone came to collect their ticket(s) I would circle over the number(s) next to their surname on the returns sheet to show that their ticket(s) had been collected. I would carry on doing this until all ticket numbers were coloured in (see photo no. 3). Every programme that was purched would also have to be coloured in at the bottom of the sheet (see bottom of photo no.3) To show that Comp, Press and To Pay tickets had been collected, I would also have to write a 'C' , 'P' , and 'the amount paid' e.g 16 in the section next to the surname in pen (see photo no. 3) 

Finally, at the end of the show, I would have to calculate the total earnings made that afternoon or evening.