With nearly 40 members of full and part-time staff, Front of House is one of the largest teams working at the RSC. They are the public face and voice of the Royal Shakespeare Company - managing a variety of inquiries, requests and incidents.

Front of House arrive early to prepare the auditorium, and leave well after the audience. It takes between three to six months to properly train a new member of the team, because the job involves so many different skills and responsibilities.

When a patron has a query or a complaint, the Front of House team will do their best to help, whether it's a lost umbrella or an incident that occurred in a performance of Antony and Cleopatra, when stage blood accidentally dripped down into the audience.

They must also be prepared to deal with illness or accidents, making sure that any members of the audience feeling unwell receive medical attention while causing as little disruption as possible to the performance.

The wonderful variety of audiences help to make the day varied and interesting for the Front of House team - and keeps them on their toes - peckish theatre-goers have even been known to try and smuggle fish and chips into a performance.

One of FoH's most important responsibilities is clearing the auditorium in the event of a fire alarm, a skill recently tested when an over-vigorous smoke machine on stage set off an alarm.

The FoH team pride themselves in helping all audience members to enjoy their visit to the RSC that little bit more, 'we try to give that little extra service. For example the team takes great pleasure in feeding and walking any visiting guide dogs!'