Steve Roberts Interview: Starting at the Theatre Royal & His Current Role
Title
Steve Roberts Interview: Starting at the Theatre Royal & His Current Role
Date
4 October 2018
Description
Oral history interview with Steve Roberts, Deputy Box Office Manager at the Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall and a long-serving member of staff since 1999.
What's the story?
Having previously worked in Nottingham’s lace industry, Steve Roberts first joined the Theatre Royal in 1999 as a Box Office Clerk and where he has since progressed to the role of Deputy Box Office Manager.
This role involves over-seeing all the box office staff, as well putting all the shows onto the computerised ticketing system, in order for staff to sell the tickets.
Throughout his time at the venue Steve has been directly involved in some of the biggest changes in how people purchase their tickets for shows at the Theatre Royal.
In this interview Steve describes how he started work at the Theatre Royal and how the lace industry links both his work at the venue and his previous occupation:
I am the Deputy Box Office Manager. I supervise and run the box office staff and also put all the shows on sale on the computer system so the staff can sell it, virtually. I don’t, personally do any public facing. I let the staff who work for me do all that. I deal a lot with the promoters, the people who are actually putting the shows on as regards sales figures, allocations to various agents, what things they want holding off sale for their own use. So I deal mainly with promoters and supervise the staff to work the box office.
My previous experience, funnily enough, I worked for 25 years in the lace trade, which is quite ironic really, because the lace trade actually built the theatre I work in, in a sense (or the manufacturers), so 25 years in the lace trade and, as all things happened with the lace trade, it came to an end, so I got made redundant. So, I was doing my “Fully Monty act” signing on and I saw a board and it said “position of Box Office Clerk” and I thought “I quite fancy that”, I don’t know why, so I applied for it, I came for an interview on Easter Saturday morning in this very office we’re in now and the Managing Director at the time said “I’ll phone you Saturday afternoon” He phoned me and said “When can you start?” I started on the Tuesday as a Box Office Clerk. That was facing the public, selling the tickets for the Concert Hall and, obviously, the Theatre Royal as well. So, yeah, I worked there for, I don’t know how many years I did there now, I must have done 5 years at least as a Box Office Clerk.
This role involves over-seeing all the box office staff, as well putting all the shows onto the computerised ticketing system, in order for staff to sell the tickets.
Throughout his time at the venue Steve has been directly involved in some of the biggest changes in how people purchase their tickets for shows at the Theatre Royal.
In this interview Steve describes how he started work at the Theatre Royal and how the lace industry links both his work at the venue and his previous occupation:
I am the Deputy Box Office Manager. I supervise and run the box office staff and also put all the shows on sale on the computer system so the staff can sell it, virtually. I don’t, personally do any public facing. I let the staff who work for me do all that. I deal a lot with the promoters, the people who are actually putting the shows on as regards sales figures, allocations to various agents, what things they want holding off sale for their own use. So I deal mainly with promoters and supervise the staff to work the box office.
My previous experience, funnily enough, I worked for 25 years in the lace trade, which is quite ironic really, because the lace trade actually built the theatre I work in, in a sense (or the manufacturers), so 25 years in the lace trade and, as all things happened with the lace trade, it came to an end, so I got made redundant. So, I was doing my “Fully Monty act” signing on and I saw a board and it said “position of Box Office Clerk” and I thought “I quite fancy that”, I don’t know why, so I applied for it, I came for an interview on Easter Saturday morning in this very office we’re in now and the Managing Director at the time said “I’ll phone you Saturday afternoon” He phoned me and said “When can you start?” I started on the Tuesday as a Box Office Clerk. That was facing the public, selling the tickets for the Concert Hall and, obviously, the Theatre Royal as well. So, yeah, I worked there for, I don’t know how many years I did there now, I must have done 5 years at least as a Box Office Clerk.
Type
Oral interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Contributor
Interviewers: Andrew Breakwell & Julia Holmes
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
