PlayGround Producing Fellowships To Foster Next Generation Leaders

PlayGround is excited to announce new one-year paid Producing Fellowships designed to foster the next generation of leadership for the American Theatre. We are looking for Bay Area individuals passionate about theatre and looking to make an impact on the field while developing the skill set to do so for a living.

Fellowships are being offered in the following departments:

  • Artistic (Literary Management/Casting)
  • Development (Fundraising/Grant Writing)
  • Theatre Management (Financial Management/HR/Contracts)
  • Communications** (Publicity/Social Media/Marketing)

** The Communications Fellowship is currently filled and will re-open in the Fall of 2020 (applications accepted beginning September 1, 2020).

While Fellows have distinct areas of responsibility, the program is designed to foster collaboration and peer-learning while providing all Fellows with a strong overview of the operations of a professional regional theatre. Fellows generally meet on Fridays, 5 hrs/wk, at the PlayGround PlaySpace in South Berkeley (BART-accessible).

The PRODUCING FELLOWSHIP-ARTISTIC is co-supervised by the Artistic Director and Associate Artistic Director/Casting Director. Daily operations can include organizing headshots/resumes, emailing actors and agents to schedule audition times, preparing sides and scripts for auditions and readings, supporting the Associate Artistic Director’s casting efforts for ongoing programming, reading and reporting on plays in consideration for current and future seasons, keeping the script database up-to-date and managing the flow of play evaluations, providing workshop support for upcoming productions, observation of and minute-taking for meetings of the Artistic Office, and basic office assistance to keep up communication and the smooth running of the Artistic Office. Candidates should possess strong communication and organizational skills, and a desire to learn more about the day-to-day workings of a major regional theatre’s artistic office and an interest in the world of literary management and casting.

The PRODUCING FELLOWSHIP-DEVELOPMENT is supervised by the Artistic Director. Daily operations can include research on prospect individuals and institutional funders, donor cultivation, writing of grants and donor appeals, donor acknowledgment, event planning, and overall fundraising strategy development and calendaring. Candidates should possess strong written and verbal communication and organizational skills, and a desire to learn more about the day-to-day workings of a major regional theatre’s development office and an interest in the world of fundraising and grant writing.

The PRODUCING FELLOWSHIP-THEATRE MANAGEMENT is supervised by the Artistic Director. Daily operations may include development and review of personnel contracts, play and space licensing agreements, participation in union negotiations, training in PlayGround’s CRM database and ticketing software (Theatre Manager), budgeting and financial management, development and review of human resource materials and policies, and other tasks necessary for the support of the administrative functions of PlayGround. Candidates should possess strong written and verbal communication and organizational skills, and a desire to learn more about the day-to-day workings of a major regional theatre’s administrative office and an interest in the world of theatre management.

PLAYGROUND, the Bay Area’s leading playwright incubator, provides unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s best new playwrights, including the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, annual PlayGround Festival of New Works, full-length play commissions and support for the production of new plays by local playwrights through the New Play Production Fund. To date, PlayGround has supported over 250 local playwrights in the development and staging of more than 950 original short plays and 80 new full-length plays, with 5 more commissions currently in development. PlayGround also operates Potrero Stage (formerly Thick House), a state-of-the-art 99-seat black box theatre in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, home to some of the Bay Area’s leading new play developers and producers, including PlayGround, Crowded Fire, Golden Thread, and Playwrights Foundation. For more information, visit https://playground-sf.org.

DATES/HOURS/RATE OF PAY
February 1, 2020 – January 30, 2021, generally on Fridays
5 hours/week @ $20/hour

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

  • Cover Letter (max. 2 pages) addressing the following:
    • Which Fellowship(s) you are applying for and why;
    • What relevant skills and experiences you bring;
    • What you hope to learn from the Fellowship and how this integrates with your career goals;
    • A brief artistic statement, indicating the type of theatre that excites you and why, and how you see your aesthetic values reflected in the mission/work of PlayGround.
  • Resume or Curriculum Vitae
  • Two Letters of Recommendation

The cover letter, resume, and letters of recommendation should be submitted to jobsearch@playground-sf.org as one PDF titled “lastname_firstname.pdf” (i.e. Billingslea_Aldo.pdf). Please also indicate “Producing Fellowship” in the subject of your email.

Interviews with select candidates will be scheduled January 20-31, 2020. Fellowship appointments will be announced on or before February 1, 2020.