Associate Artistic Director Position Available at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company

Title: Associate Artistic Director

Reports to: Producing Artistic Director

Start Date: Flexible, After July 1

About the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company

The 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 ten mainstage productions and six touring productions annually. Beyond its theatrical portfolio, CSC collaborates 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 advance CSC’s DEIA commitments with a particular emphasis to building a diverse team and an equitable Company.

Position Overview

The Associate Artistic Director actively collaborates with the Producing Artistic Director on programming decisions and executions to realize the mission and vision of CSC. Additionally, they oversee the casting process and new play development program at CSC. The Associate Artistic Director stages a number of mainstage, education, and outreach productions every season. This full-time position works a base schedule of 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday. This schedule flexes to accommodate rehearsals, production schedules, auditions, special events, and engagement programming.

The Associate Artistic Director is a member of the Leadership Team and Artistic Visionary Circle (AVC), alongside other directors and managers within the company. Within this team, the Associate Artistic Director represents the voices and interests of their programs and collaborators while weighing in on the overall operations of the company. As a member of the AVC, the Associate Artistic Director is actively involved in the programming and artistic decisions of the company.

The AVC realizes the artistic strategies of producers, directors, and designers within the resources allocated by the company. In response to the pandemic, CSC is in a state of recovery and rebuild. The incoming Associate Artistic Director should expect to be heavily involved in rebuilding and staffing the Resident Ensemble and the staff – which will likely be a multi-season effort. A successful candidate will have an involved approach to the work of every department that is associated with the AVC.

The Associate Artistic Director guides directors, playwrights, and producers through the casting and hiring processes for CSC’s programming. The Associate Artistic Director collaborates with the Producing Artistic Director, the Director of Education, and the Production Manager when it comes to building creative teams and engaging external artists as necessary for all CSC programming.

The Associate Artistic Director leads commissioned playwrights and their projects from inception to completion. They project-manage commissioning processes, providing consistent communication with potential and contracted playwrights, adhere to established deadlines, coordinate workshops, and lead community engagement efforts centered around the New Works Program of CSC. This may include overseeing the scheduling of the theater, rehearsal spaces, technical equipment, and personnel as necessary to support new play development work.

As a leader within the institution, the Associate Artistic Director drives progress against CSC’s DEIA Plan and Strategic Plan. They are active leaders and collaborators for stewarding progress in the Artistic, Production, Education, People, and Engagement sections of the Strategic Plan. Partnering closely with all of CSC’s leadership, the Associate Artistic Director manages internal and external communication regarding these plans including dashboard reporting, communication with the Board of Trustees, and representing the staff on the Board of Trustee’s DEIA committee.

Qualifications

Required skills include:

• Demonstrated leadership.
• Comfort with problem solving and making decisions with limited supervision.
• Comfort serving in a public-facing role as a representative of the company and speaking publically.
• Previous experience in theatrical Production and Performance (educational, intern, assistant, or associate-level experience acceptable).
• Previous experience with schedule management or creation.

Preferred skills include:

• Experience directing theatrical projects and collaborative processes.
• Written communication skills to support public remarks, project summaries, and engagement materials.
• General experience across multiple aspects of technical theater including stage management, costumes, scenic, lighting, props, scenic artistry, sound, projections, and front of house.
• Proficiency with the Microsoft Office suite including Microsoft Outlook.
• Proficiency with virtual meeting and distance learning platforms such as Zoom.

A successful candidate will also possess the following attributes:

• Genuine passion to cultivate and support a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible work environment.
• Drive to create world-class theater that has a significant impact in the community and beyond.
• Eagerness to learn.
• Ability to keep calm under pressure and remain tactful in stressful situations.

Responsibilities

Artistic

Production and Planning:

• Drive artistic output and production quality improvements year-over-year.
• Collaborate in creating an annual business plan with the Artistic Visionary Circle including schedules, budgets, and long-term planning for approval by Executive Leadership.
• Direct 1-3 mainstage productions and 1-2 touring/outreach programs per season.
• Attend first reads, designer runs, leadership meetings, production meetings, retreats, technical rehearsals, previews, special events, and post-mortems.
• Present designs or remarks at first reads if designers/directors are unable to attend.
• Oversee regular quality control of all productions including performances on the mainstage, touring, parks, and as needed.
• Facilitate community conversations between artists and audience at regularly scheduled performances and as needed for special events.
• Oversee the commission of new plays and serve as the project manager for each commissioning project from initial conversation through final draft.
• Oversee creation of monthly script readings and discussions with all members of the company.

Casting & Team Building:

• Engage in ongoing recruiting process to cultivate diverse candidate pools for available opportunities on design teams, staff, teaching artists, resident ensemble, touring company, and other opportunities. Participate regularly in hiring processes.
• Craft all audition notices for local casting calls, EPAs, callbacks, New York and Chicago casting partners, and larger convention auditions.
• Serve as the main point of contact for actors and casting partners.
• Collect and distribute scene selections and materials for auditions.
• Coordinate understudy assignments/performances for touring company members.
• Hire and manage additional understudy casting as necessary.
• Manage and maintain audition archive.

Vision & Leadership

Strategic Advancement

• Serve as a member of Artistic Visionary Circle and the Leadership Team.
• Take notes at Leadership Team meetings and create/distribute weekly staff email
• Demonstrate clear leadership and ownership of many aspects of CSC’s DEIA Plan and Strategic Plan goals. Regularly report on the Company’s progress against its goals internally and externally.
• Facilitate collaboration between Artistic Visionary Circle, the resident ensemble, and production designers to improve productivity, encourage creativity, and promote issue resolution.
• Collaborate with the Producing Artistic Director regularly to discuss immediate and long-term artistic goals for Cincinnati Shakespeare Company.

Community Engagement

• Serve as an ambassador to the region.
• Cultivate and maintain relationships with community partners.
• Create and manage collaborations with community partners that serve to advance the mission of CSC and build intentional connections between the Company and the Community.
• Engage with professional groups, industry conferences, and regional institutions as needed.

Board Participation

• Report to the Board of Trustees regarding Strategic Plan Progress and own the Strategic Update section of Board Meetings.
• Sit on the DEIA committee of the Board of Trustees; report on DEIA plan progress and communicate openly about DEIA advancement and objectives between the Company and the Board.

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 $37,000-41,000 (received through biweekly payroll). In addition to this salary, the Associate Artistic Director 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 YMCA which offers fitness facilities throughout the region and other wellness benefits.
• Complimentary and discounted tickets to all CSC programming.

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: work samples, reviews, production photos, project proposals, etc. Candidates also have the option to provide URLs to online portfolios and profiles. Please take note of the submission file size limits.

As CSC advances its commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion, and access, gathering demographic data on our job applicants is vital to ensuring that hiring and recruiting practices provide equal opportunity for all. Applicants are asked to please take a few minutes to complete this survey. Participation is optional and anonymous. This information helps CSC measure progress towards a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace.

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).