Top accolade for Chichester Festival Theatre’s “unsung hero”

Theatre manager Janet Bakose is the winner of The Stage Awards Unsung Hero Award 2024 – and typically, she says she would never have gone to London to receive it had she known that that was why she was going to London.

Janet was nominated for the award by her colleagues who commended her for her “formidable work ethic and attention to detail” and also her “warmth of manner and dedication to the welfare of audiences and artists alike” plus her “innate modesty and self-effacement.” They added: “Quite simply, it is impossible to underestimate her contribution to the success and ethos of Chichester Festival Theatre. We would love her to finally receive the public recognition she deserves.”

Janet admits: “Kathy (Bourne, executive director of Chichester Festival Theatre) was next to me (at the ceremony) and she said ‘Shall I go first so that you can collect your thoughts?’ And she said that ‘If Janet had had any idea that this was why she was coming to London, she would have refused to come.’ And that's absolutely true. The only way I could actually do it was if it was a complete shock – which it was!”

Which sums up Janet’s approach.

“I'm very happy being behind the scenes and out of the spotlight. It is very clear in the theatre that there are a lot of large personalities that like to be in the spotlight but that has never been me. But I've always really loved being in the theatre. I programme the winter and for me it's about giving everybody a really good experience. It's about thinking who your customers are and making sure that they have a really good time so that they want to come back.

“I started in 1978 and was taken on to work in the box office for one season. I had another job to go to in the September which was working for the BBC, for Radio Brighton or Radio Sussex. I was very pleased to have got that job which was working on a new radio show about the arts. I was quite looking forward to it but when I did my first season here in Chichester, I absolutely fell in love with this place. There's something really special about the Festival Theatre. I think it was just so different for me. I had done some temping and I had not really enjoyed the work that I had done. I found it very boring and I just wanted something that was more interesting.”

The Festival Theatre certainly offered that: “When I joined the Festival Theatre my interview was with the box office manager but (long-serving CFT general manager) Paul Rogerson was in the background looking in, and when the interview was over he came in and introduced himself. That was so special for me. I was really interested in the business of selling tickets and why some shows sell and others don't and I worked very closely with Paul. When I left the box office I went to work with Paul and he spent so much time with me exploring how the winter season works and the importance of meeting the artists and making sure that they feel welcomed and going around the dressing rooms and all those little things that perhaps don't happen in the world so often now.”