OVERVIEW
Title: Producing Artistic Director
Summary: Theater Alliance is seeking a dynamic and visionary Producing Artistic Director to develop and implement the company’s artistic season and programming. Guided by the company’s mission, vision, and core values, this person will work collaboratively with the Managing Director, board, and staff, to lead Theater Alliance into its next era.
Pay: $50,000/year; health and dental insurance; hybrid remote/on-site work; and generous and flexible time off
Location: Anacostia, Washington, DC
Apply by: 10/27/23
How to apply: Email cover letter and resume to search@theateralliance.com

ABOUT THEATER ALLIANCE
Theater Alliance, in Washington, DC, develops, produces, and presents socially conscious, thought-provoking work that fully engages our community in active dialogue.  

As a catalyst for innovation and diversity, Theater Alliance seeks to unite audiences of all backgrounds through the power of creative presentation and participation. As the resident theater company of the Anacostia Playhouse since 2013, Theater Alliance is proud to produce professional, award-winning work in the historic Black neighborhood of Anacostia. Through our work, Theater Alliance creates an audience laboratory where the myriad perspectives of DC are face-to-face, confronting issues and tackling difficult questions that affect our diverse community. 

Theater Alliance currently has an operating budget of approximately $400,000 and a staff comprised of the Producing Artistic Director, Managing Director, Art & Technical Director, Digital Producer, Production Manager, Company Manager, and Social Media Manager. Additional relationships with contracted service providers including accounting, 990 preparation,  and website upkeep complete the team. 

Theater Alliance is governed by a small, but very dedicated Board of Directors representing diverse professional expertise and backgrounds. Our Board meets at minimum three-four times per season, with smaller committee meetings in between. The Board oversees both the Producing Artistic Director and the Managing Director, and meets regularly with company leadership regarding the vision, strategy, and financial position of the company. 

In a standard theater season, Theater Alliance produces three mainstage productions, which tend to explore different perspectives on a given theme. Additionally, digital programming, new play readings/development activities, festivals, educational workshops, and other activities are developed each season to accompany the mainstage productions and grant additional touchpoints for audiences throughout the year. 

As the Company in Residence at the Anacostia Playhouse, a majority of our performances — as well as our office space — is guaranteed each season by the parameters of our lease agreement. 

Theater Alliance has twice been a finalist for the Mayor’s Arts Award; featured in the Greater Washington Catalogue for Philanthropy; received the Capitol Hill Community Foundation’s Keller Award for making significant, ongoing contributions to the life of the community; and awarded the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ UPSTART Grant for capacity building. Nationally, we have received the American Theatre Wing’s National Theater Company Grant and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. The organization is a core member of the National New Play Network. Theater Alliance has received 96 Helen Hayes Award Nominations and 23 Helen Hayes Awards.

Theater Alliance has been providing poignant, celebrated, and high caliber theatrical experiences to residents of the DC region for over 20 years. We have a reputation for incubating young talent, are proud to work with and support local artists, and produce stories based in and about DC and its residents. 

OUR COMMUNITY
Through all of our productions, we create theater of the highest artistic caliber, which brings our DC community together through a shared experience onstage and in the conversations that follow. 

Theater Alliance is housed in the Anacostia neighborhood of DC, which too often has gone without the arts and culture offerings enjoyed by other quadrants. Currently, we are the only professional theater company permanently located in Ward 8.

Theater Alliance is dedicated to creating work that welcomes and resonates with our geographic neighbors. Several years ago, Theater Alliance worked with a consultant to perform interviews, focus groups, and surveys to better understand the role the company can play in our community — and how best to serve our audiences. The quantitative and qualitative data points to our community wanting us to continue elevating marginalized and up-and-coming theater artists, to show up in our community outside our programming, and to foster the next generation of DC’s playwrights, as well as telling stories that are unique to our city. From featuring local visual artists in the lobby to commissioning work by local playwrights, Theater Alliance has long championed the community of theater practitioners within the DC region.

And finally, our community engagement is tied to everything we do. From our continued presence at Anacostia Coordinating Council meetings to our partnership with Howard University, we seek enrich our community and forge longstanding relationships with other organizations to better serve our audiences, and the entirety of DC. Each of our productions has nonprofit partners whose real-world work demonstrate the themes of our programming — providing audiences a mechanism to get involved if they so choose and enabling our writers and designers to anchor their work in expert experience. 

Our Radical Neighboring Initiative, which enables audiences to attend our productions regardless of their financial situation, demonstrates our commitment to our individual community members and our desire to be a meeting place for all.

POSITION SUMMARY
Reporting to the Board of Directors as a co-leader alongside the Managing Director, the Producing Artistic Director will be responsible for the selection, planning, and execution of all artistic activities of the organization, as well as being the heart and mind of Theater Alliance, both within the organization and among our community. 

The Producing Artistic Director will be a visionary and strategic leader with a collaborative approach to creating excellent programming, overseeing the company and its productions, and solving problems. A clear and transparent communicator with an approachable demeanor and sense of humor, they will be people-centered, responsive to the needs of others, and foster close working relationships. As a confident community organizer and fundraiser, the Producing Artistic Director will be adept at cultivating a wide range of partnerships that continue to grow the organization. 

Theater Alliance recognizes the value of a workforce made up of highly skilled people from a variety of backgrounds. Diversity enriches our work environment and our stage productions. It invigorates the services we provide to the community. Therefore, Theater Alliance strives to increase accessibility for all segments of the community, both to join the organization and to grow professionally within.

A dedicated practitioner of inclusion, equity, and belonging, this person will lead by example in championing IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) for people of all backgrounds, and will sustain the organizational culture of humanity, respect, collaboration, and accountability.

Role and Responsibilities

Artistic Leadership 

• Select the season (mainstage & festivals/workshops/commissions, etc) and additional, auxiliary programming (post-show conversations/educational activities, community engagement, etc.) 
• Scout, select, supervise, and support outside artists 
• Hire, supervise and evaluate production and part-time staff
• Set artistic vision and goals for the theater
• Work as an artist, directing or designing, at minimum one production each season
• Cultivate a working environment that promotes the development and retention of the highest quality Board, staff, and artistic talent

Administrative Co-Leadership
(With Managing Director)

• Collaborate with the Managing Director, to jointly advance the theater’s long-term strategic direction and organizational goals
• Assist in growing, diversifying, and working with the board of directors to leverage their expertise, networks, and resources to support the theater
• Coordinate and participate in strategic planning with staff and board
• Develop annual operating budget (production expenses and staff)

Fundraising & Development

• Develop and maintain strong relationships with funders to season sponsorships, production underwriting, and other high-level individual support 
• Collaborate with staff to generate ideas for grants, small dollar fundraising proposals, sponsorships, and other partnerships.

Marketing & Consensus Organizing

• Work with staff to develop and implement marketing campaigns, programs, events and outreach.
• Represent the theater locally and nationally to enhance theater’s reputation. 
• Engage with the Anacostia and the greater Washington, DC community
• Champion and implement Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and anti-racism initiatives throughout the entire organization. 

Qualifications
No specific educational prerequisites are required, although an advanced degree in arts administration, theater directing or design, or a related field/equivalent experience is strongly preferred. 

The ideal candidate will have/be: 

• a collaborative leader and creative problem solver, 
• strong business and financial acumen, preferably in theater
• experience producing live theater or events
• strong communication skills 
• a commitment to community engagement and the ability to foster relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders
• considerable knowledge of directors, designers, actors, and casting agents in and around Washington, DC
• a thorough understanding and appreciation for our city

COMPENSATION 
$50,000 + Benefits. Theater Alliance provides a compensation package in keeping with comparably sized theaters. Benefits include flexible leave, personal days, and holidays; health insurance coverage, including dental. Historically, based on the year-end financial position of the company, the board has approved additional staff bonuses. 

In addition, while a year-round, full-time position, Theater Alliance staff, including the Producing Artistic Director, are encouraged to pursue outside production work so long as it does not interfere with the fulfillment of Theater Alliance responsibilities. The season schedule is flexible and can be designed specifically to allow for these supplemental engagements that both advance the individual career of the Producing Artistic Director as well as put Theater Alliance in conversation with our artistic peers. 

TO APPLY
To apply, submit a cover letter and resume with a summary of demonstrable accomplishments (electronic submissions preferred), to search@theateralliance.com. Please use the subject line: Producing Artistic Director. 

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER
Theater Alliance is an equal opportunity employer. In accordance with anti-discrimination law, it is the purpose of this policy to effectuate these principles and mandates. Theater Alliance prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type and affords equal employment opportunities to employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Theater Alliance conforms to the spirit as well as to the letter of all applicable laws and regulations.