Stage Door Keeper
Leeds Grand Theatre

Gareth E

00:00:01 I’m Gareth E and I work at Leeds Grand Theatre as Stage Door Keeper. Basically what I do is reception and security of the building. I deal with all the customers from front of house to backstage, and all the crew and everybody that comes into the theatre.

00:00:16 At school I was really shy, you know, didn’t have much confidence, but I used to love, you know, doing me schoolwork and getting along with teachers and me mates and stuff. Out of me GCSEs I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do at that time, so I picked stuff that I just enjoyed. After me GCSEs I just went to look for a job, because I didn’t really want to go to Uni ’cause I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. So I just looked for about three months and I found a job doing cabinet-making. I didn’t think I’d like it to start off with, but I went and I really enjoyed, you know, what they did, and making stuff from just a piece of wood, to making all for kitchens and stuff. It were just, you know, job satisfaction basically. I finished that because I didn’t really get anything out of it, after three years I was still on the same amount of money.

00:01:02 We went on holiday for me Dad’s fiftieth, and I started talking to a few people that worked out there, and I decided to work out there instead. I worked in Greece managing bars, doing nightclubs. It were fantastic, yeah. Really good fun. I mean it was totally different from working anywhere else I’d worked. In between seasons I did – I worked at Leeds United, and I were manager for bars and cellars and stuff, and making sure all the staff knew what they were doing, because we used to get a lot of outside catering companies to come in. Well I chose to work here because I were working in nightclubs before this, and me Dad had a heart attack, so it were better for the family because me Mum works here and a lot of me family work here, so I just thought it would be better just to settle down a bit.

00:01:52 I was serving customers like students in that type of culture, and then coming here we’re serving a different type of customer altogether, and it were more rewarding working here, because they were more, you know, polite and more sociable as well. So really, it were more enjoyable for me. Well when we first started the team were really fantastic, I mean ’cause we knew each other, and when we were first helping we didn’t actually have anything clear at the time, so we built up the strength and ever since that we’ve just been fantastic, it’s like a family working here. Well I’d like to keep it because I really enjoy working here and, you know, meeting all the new people and making new friends. But I’ve got me own business as well, what I’ve just started up, so I’d like to get more involved with that as well.

00:02:40 What affects me it’s just basically making sure everyone has a good time at whatever I’m doing, and making sure I’m the best at what I do. I mean there’s nothing better than, you know, making other people happy. I could hopefully see myself, in the future, you know, running me own company, and hopefully going to Uni as well. I’ve always wanted to go to Uni, but at the time it just wasn’t suitable for me, and I just wanted to try and find a career without that. I’m keen to go back into education just to teach meself new stuff, like I want to be better at business management, and I’ve got a lot more idea of what I want now. Yeah I’ve really wised up in the last few years, and I know what I want now, and I’ve got a target, so I want to try and aim for that.

00:03:22 ENDS