Monthly Archives: January 2021

Title: Director of Education

Reports to: Producing Artistic Director

Start Date:    After April 1, 2021 (Flexible)

About the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (CSC) is a resident ensemble theatre company bringing Shakespeare and the Classics to life for all. Operating out of The Otto M. Budig Theater, CSC hosts a year-round theatrical season in addition to special events, educational programming, and community engagement activities. In its theatrical portfolio, CSC executes up to 10 mainstage productions and 6 touring productions annually. Beyond its theatrical portfolio, CSC supports collaborations with many local community and arts organizations.

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA) are priorities of the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. CSC strongly supports equal employment opportunity for all applicants regardless of race, sex, religion, creed, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation or any other legally protected classification. Successful candidates will be committed to advancing CSC’s DEIA commitments with a particular emphasis on education and youth engagement.

Position Overview

The Director of Education creates and directs the curriculum of Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s Education Department. The base schedule of this position is 9am-5pm Monday through Friday and flexes to accommodate programming schedules, teaching assignments, and event attendance.

The Director of Education hires and manages six Touring Company members annually who are the backbone of the teaching artist team. In addition to this core team, the Director of Education engages additional teaching artists throughout the year to assist with Summer Camp, PROJECT38, and other programs that cannot be covered by the Director of Education and the Touring Company. As CSC rebuilds following pandemic-mandated closure, successful candidates will have a “roll up their sleeves” mentally to execute programming directly.

The Director of Education is a member of the Leadership Team and Artistic Visionary Circle (AVC), alongside other directors and managers within the company. Within this team, the Director of Education represents the voices and interests of the students, teachers, and community members for whom they create programming while weighing in on the overall operations of the company. As a member of the AVC, the Director of Education is involved in the programming and artistic decisions of the company.

The Education Department delivers programming that is connected to CSC’s contributed and earned revenues. As a result, the Director of Education is responsible for collaborating with members of the Business Visionary Circle to ensure that curriculum and programming executed within their department delivers against engagement, mission, and financial goals. The Director of Education monitors the success of their programming regularly through engagement and audience development targets as well as through sales and expense tracking.

As this position requires working with minors, candidates will be required to complete a criminal background check.

Qualifications

Required skills include:

• Passion for creating theatrical education experiences that support CSC’s DEIA commitments.
• Experience as a teacher.
• Knowledge of Theater Education.
• Demonstrable abilities in stage direction and acting.
• Desire for year-over-year increased impact and improved financial performance of the Education Department.
• Knowledge and/or desire to learn more about Financial Management of a Department.
• Interest in coaching young actors and teaching artists early in their careers.
• Interest in working with classroom teachers to assess and address their curriculum needs.
• Passion for working with students of all ages K-12.
• Ability to serve as an ambassador for CSC’s mission and vision locally, nationally, and internationally.

Preferred skills include:

• Proficiency with the Microsoft Office suite including Microsoft Outlook.
• Proficiency with virtual meeting and distance learning platforms such as Zoom.
• Demonstrable abilities in stage direction for small touring productions.
• Demonstrable abilities in digital content creation.
• Experience managing budgets and resources.
• Understanding and consideration of access and equity in all programming.
• Knowledge of trends in education and learning.
• Knowledge of Shakespeare and other classical theater.

A successful candidate will also possess the following attributes:

• Genuine passion in cultivating and supporting a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible work environment.
• Ability to keep calm under pressure and remain tactful in stressful situations.

Responsibilities

Programming & Artistic

• Spearhead efforts to raise the profile of CSC’S Education programs through connections and conversations on a local, regional, national, and international level.
• Serve as the primary liaison for Education Collaborations with multiple organizations from Shakespeare’s Globe in London, our neighbors at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, and other institutions.
• Direct touring productions annually as scheduled.
• Attend all dress rehearsals and design runs for all education projects to maintain quality and be a visible and supportive presence.
• Attend tours occasionally throughout the year to maintain quality.
• Develop and execute new programming for the education department.
• Execute established CSC education programming to maintain CSC’s existing customer base.
• Direct Shakespeare Summer Camp for all age groups.
• Develop and implement curriculum for Groundlings, Groundlings Junior, camps, workshops, and classes.
• Serve as a frontline teaching artist for Groundlings, Groundlings Junior, Summer Camp, and multiple PROJECT38 schools as scheduled.
• Serve as the artistic director and project manager of PROJECT38.
• Invest in development of CSC-teacher relationships through preview events, coaching sessions, and other engagement opportunities.
• Lead professional development opportunities for CSC’s school and teacher partners.

Personnel & Leadership

• Serve as a member of Artistic Visionary Circle with a specific focus on Educational mission and priorities.
• Hold auditions across the region and the nation to find the best talent to join the CSC intern company.
• Foster established audition relationships.
• Hire and manage of touring company members and teachers for classes, camps, PROJECT38, etc.
• Manage the Education Department calendar and coordinate schedules.
• Train acting interns and teaching artists about CSC education program standards and strategies to ensure high quality and consistent experiences from CSC representatives at all schools.
• Annually review lesson plans to be put into a Shakespearience and Classics in the Classroom Manual that will consist of lesson plans for various workshops for the touring company. Through this manual, tour members will be provided with a solid foundation for their lesson planning.
• Preview all Touring Company lesson plans and be a resource to the touring company as they plan workshops and residencies throughout the year.

Audience Engagement

• Create study guides for each production utilizing Common Core and STEM standards.
• Collaborate with the CSC Marketing Department to drive audience engagement.
• Work with Director of Marketing and Data Analytics on content creation for website and print marketing materials for education.
• Focus on audience engagement as part of the creative process for each mainstage production through engagement activities before, during, and after productions.
• Lead or facilitate pre/post-workshops for the mainstage shows. These can include actors talk backs, survivors’ talks, lectures, bar series, etc.

Planning and Budgeting

• Work with Director of Marketing and Data Analytics and Producing Artistic Director to determine program ideas and needs of schools and community as balanced against financial goals.
• Work closely with the Director of Marketing and Data Analytics for annual budgeting and quarterly sales checks to make sure the product is aligning with customer feedback and requests.
• Assist Director of Marketing and Data Analytics with marketing copy for educational brochures and email campaigns that include detailed explanations of our programs and educational objectives.

In addition to the responsibilities above, all CSC staff may be asked to perform additional duties at the request of their supervisor.

Compensation & Benefits

This is a full time, salaried, exempt position with an annual salary range of $36,000-40,000 (received through biweekly payroll). In addition to this salary, the Director of Education receives:

• Ten days of paid vacation, accrued seasonally.
• Six days of paid sick leave, accrued seasonally.
• Paid holiday leave.
• Access to group health insurance through Anthem with 50% of employee premiums paid by CSC.
• Optional enrollment in Health Savings Account plan.
• Access to dental insurance through Dental Care Plus with 50% of employee premiums paid by CSC.
• Life and AD&D coverage for the employee paid by CSC.
• Parental leave, short-term medical leave.
• 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan with employer match.
• Free access to CSC educational programming for dependents (Groundlings Junior, Groundlings, Summer Camp).
• Complimentary enrollment and membership to the Y which offers fitness facilities throughout the region and other wellness benefits.
• Complimentary and discounted tickets to all CSC productions.

To Apply

To apply for this position, candidates should complete the job application submission form available online below.

This application requires candidates to submit PDFs of their cover letter and resume. For this position, work sample submissions are optional and may include content such as: curriculum or teaching plans, project budgets, project proposals, program schedules or calendars, study guides, etc. Candidates also have the option to provide URLs to online portfolios and profiles. Please take note of the submission file size limits.

If a candidate has questions about this position or requires different accommodations to submit an application, please contact lettie.vanhemert@cincyshakes.com. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

To submit a Job Application click here (and scroll down).