Broadway Theatre, box-office manager, Denise Cresswell

»As a box office manager I’m responsible for the smooth running of the box office and its staff.

I make sure that when people buy or pick up their tickets the experience is as friendly and easy as possible for them.

I really enjoy the job, especially when it’s busy. Panto season is brilliant – there’s such a buzz in the place.

And it’s lovely when you get positive feedback from visitors, in particular those who may not have been to the Broadway before and are not big theatregoers.

It’s great to see them come back again because they enjoyed it so much.

Through working at the theatre I’ve been lucky to meet some wonderful performers over the years. Probably the most memorable were Prunella Scales and her son Samuel West, also an actor.

There have been a few divas too. I remember Leee John, from the band Imagination, threatened to pull the show just before he was supposed to go on because some of the equipment wasn’t working.

I think a venue like the Broadway is vital to this community and it’s important that we keep it going.

We try hard to make sure that there’s something for everyone, from commercial stuff like Gerry and the Pace Makers, to more obscure and hard-hitting productions like A Day at the Races.

When I’m not working I spend quite a lot of time performing myself, mainly in musicals. It’s a big passion of mine, which I’ve been involved with since I was two. I performed in a dance festival at the Broadway when I was a child, though at the time it was called Barking Assembly Hall.