Bar & Kitchen Staff

The Royal Court is the home of the English Stage Company Limited (ESC), which celebrated its 60th Anniversary in 2016, the first subsidised theatre company in London to reach such an age. The Royal Court occupies a unique place in theatrical history and is the first theatre in the UK to call itself a writers theatre and dedicate itself to staging new work.

The culture of playwriting and creating new work through play development processes has changed substantially over the past decade, with many theatres – no doubt inspired and influenced by the Royal Court’s success – now promoting new writing as an integral and popular strand of their programmes. With its longstanding history of risk taking, creative innovation and artistic integrity, the Royal Court now needs to reaffirm its position as leading the field in creating and developing new work for the British stage.

With an annual turnover of £5.6million (2006/07), the company presents, on average, 14 – 16 shows in its two theatres – six in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs and eight in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs with additional work being presented when possible. Included in these are often visiting productions from regional venues, co-productions and visiting companies from international theatres.

In addition to this, the Royal Court has an extensive play development programme that includes a Young Writers Programme (YWP), an International Programme and UK play development programme. All of the work is focused on new plays for which the Royal Court has an international reputation. Some of the experimental work is shown to the public during a Rough Cut season and there is a bi-annual Young Writers Festival.

The Royal Court Theatre has two commercial subsidiaries, Royal Court Theatre Productions Ltd (RCTP), which facilitates the transfer of ESC productions to the West End and ESC Catering Limited, set up to run the catering operation at the theatre.

Main Purpose:

To be responsible for the successful delivery of first class sales and customer service.
To efficiently operate the Cafe’s bar and floor areas, including at times of great pressure pre-show, during intervals and at events.
To assist with ensuring that health, safety and hygiene, along with licensing regulations, are met.
The Cafe Bar staff are responsible for either working behind the bar or as waiting/floor staff.

Key Responsibilities:

To provide a welcoming environment to all visitors to the theatre.
To assist in ensuring the safety and comfort of members of the public and staff.
To deal effectively with customer problems and enquiries.
To be proactive in bar and food sales to ensure maximum profitability.
To be knowledgeable of the bars services, such as food and drink menus.
To abide by and enforce appropriate licensing regulations.
To correctly operate the bar’s cash registers and PDQ machines.
To accurately reconcile and record cash takings.
To adhere to and assist with stock control procedures.
To assist with and, on occasion accept or check, stock deliveries.
To ensure all cash and stock is kept safely whilst on the premises.
To ensure that basic daily cleaning duties are carried out and to assist with other weekly responsibilities as rotaed
To assist with internal and external events.
To attend all training sessions.
To adhere to all fire, health and safety procedures to minimise the risk of injury and accidents.
To ensure that hygiene standards are maintained.
To adhere to all staff work practises, rules and regulations.
To be knowledgeable of the theatres facilities and productions.
To carry out any other duties required by the theatre in pursuance of the above objectives.
Personal Specification:

Previous bar or waiting/floor experience is essential.
Good communicator, able to offer a consistently high standard of customer care.
Enthusiastic team worker with excellent interpersonal skills.
Ability to use your initiative and prioritise tasks.
Ability to work well under pressure.
Accurate cash-handling skills.
Basic knowledge of health and safety and/or hygiene issues is desirable.
Terms and Conditions:

Title of Post: Bar and Food Staff
Responsible to: Bar and Food Managers

Hours: Casual position; hours to be agreed at commencement of employment. Shifts will include regular evening and weekend work.

Salary: £7 per hour

Holiday entitlement: 20 days per year, plus 8 days for statutory holidays.

Notice Period: 2 Weeks.

Other Benefits:

Complimentary tickets for preview performances, subject to availability and the Royal Court’s staff ticket policy.
Complimentary staff meal, when working an 8 hour shift or longer.
40% discount on all food purchases and 15% discount on all drink purchases in the theatre’s Cafe Bar, subject to discount policy.
10% discount on all purchases in the theatre’s Bookshop, subject to discount policy.
Application Procedures:

Please note that only applications submitted on the Royal Court’s standard Application Form can be considered. Application Forms can be downloaded from the sidebar on the left-hand side of this page. Once the Application and Equal Opportunities Forms are completed, please return to:

Email: fohjobs@royalcourttheatre.com

Post:
Bar & Food Manager
English Stage Company
Royal Court Theatre
Sloane Square
London SW1 8AS

The Royal Court is committed to being an Equal Opportunities Employer and encourages applications from minority ethnic and disabled groups, as they are under-represented amongst are staff.

The English Stage Company (no. 231242) is a publicly funded registered charity.