We are looking for a new Producer!
Updated: Mar 8, 2022
Job Role: Producer (updated!)
Hours: 4 days/32 hours per week with a flexible hours policy to support parents/carers/access needs. We have extended the deadline to also welcome applicants who can offer 3 days a week with the understanding that occasional extra days may be needed. There is scope to bring on board an assistant/ associate producer to help manage workload, if a 3 day week is preferred. Location: Stanley Arts, Norwood Junction, with some remote working (and remote during lockdown) Start date: Flexible, but ideally March 2021 Contract: Fixed term, 6 months from start date (3 month probation) Fee: £450 per week / £112.50 per day, Freelance. (£29,250p/a FTE) with paid holiday allowance (calculated pro rata) Extended Deadline: Thursday 18th February 2021 at Midnight.
Essential Skills:
A minimum of 2 years working in a producing role, or similar, within the theatre/ live performance industry
Budgeting, and managing project budgets over £15k (preferably with experience of managing larger budgets, around £50k - £100k)
Project management skills, including communicating with and coordinating a small office team, artists and partners.
Kindness, empathy, openness and flexibility - we are a responsive and fast-paced company, which can be demanding, but also means we are pushing to make work we think the world needs to see right now.
A working knowledge of creating theatre through funded routes, including an experience of navigating Grantium and Arts Council’s funding systems, preferably including having applied for/ secured Arts Council funding in the recent past, with an up-to-date knowledge of the ‘Let’s Create’ Strategy.
Liaising with venues, commissioners, funders and programmers and staff by phone/ email
An awareness and appreciation of accessibility, and the Social Model of Disability, as being at the core of what we do (specific training not required as we will look to provide this!)
A clear focus, drive and passion for producing theatre, specifically in the role of a Producer!
If you meet this essential criteria, please read on for more info!
WHO ARE WE?
Zoo Co is a multi-award winning, Croydon based theatre company established in 2013. We create highly visual work with diverse ensembles, and have more recently focused on creating work with d/Deaf and hearing casts, with creative leadership by neurodiverse, d/Deaf and queer creatives reflecting our firm belief that theatre is better when everybody is invited. Our creative ethos is to 'play lightly with things that matter deeply'. All our performances have been Relaxed since 2014.
We also deliver community engagement projects as a core part of our output. We are co-produce/ support shows by Associate Artists and companies when we feel our expertise/ specialisms can support new work to grow. We support emerging artists and companies through sharing of resources and our time.
Zoo Co has created and toured six critically acclaimed productions including Sirens, winner of Three Weeks Editors Choice Award 2018, GIANT and The Girl Who Fell in Love with the Moon. 2021 holds some exciting projects and plans, including the development of a Rep. company model at our new and beautiful base in Stanley Halls, R+D at Barbican for Perfect Show For Rachel (finalist for the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award), and an international digital collaboration with Sakatoya (Indonesia) which is funded by British Council.
The Artistic Director (AD) is full time, and we have a part time Marketing Manager, Access Coordinator, a Freelance Assistant to the AD, and an MA Community Producer who is on placement. In future, we hope to offer more assistant producing roles (placements or entry level roles), who can support the producer’s workload as projects develop.
THE ROLE
We are looking for someone to join our small, friendly, kind, and proactive team on a 4 day per week basis for a fixed term 6 month period (with a 3 month probation and review), with the possibility to extend beyond this into permanent working, subject to how these 6 months work for you and our team, us securing ongoing funding, and projects we have lined up.
This role is one that we will shape and specify based on finding the right person, who we feel best fits into our team and remit. We don’t expect applicants to meet all of the criteria, or to know how to do everything on this list. We can support training to fill gaps in experience, where appropriate.
What we do need is openness, kindness, team-work and flexibility, someone who is highly organised, an excellent communicator and who has skills in our Necessary Skills category. We need someone who genuinely wants to make, nurture and grow the work that we produce, and who is excited by the prospect of a theatre company that is civic in its outlook, rooted in its community, responsive to the changing and daunting world we find ourselves in, ambitious in its projects and caring towards all artists and participants who we work with.
The most important aspects of this job are that you genuinely want to support Zoo Co’s work, help realise our creative projects, hatch ambitious plans, and push us to further our impact, working closely alongside the Artistic Director in what is a new and exciting chapter for Zoo. This role is advertised as a Producing role, but will likely develop into a senior/ executive role over the coming 1-2 years.
Other skills/ experience we’d be interested in hearing about, but which aren’t essential:
Experience navigating trusts and foundations, and/ or securing core funding, as a vital key to the Zoo Co’s next steps
Experience in managing/ administrating for a charity, including writing board reports and financially reporting to HMRC and the Charity Commission
Tour-booking, promoting a tour to new venues, and current venue partners
BSL skills/ Deaf Awareness training, or previous experience in working with d/Deaf artists/ delivering for and with the d/Deaf community
PR/ Marketing skills
Brand development and company messaging
Experience working with and supporting neurodiverse, d/Deaf or disabled creatives as leaders, not just participants
Experience producing work which utilises projection, captioning, and higher tech rigs than standard theatre touring kit.
Eventually, this role will be predominantly office based, but is currently remote due to Covid-19 restrictions. Please only apply if you are able to commute to work in-person when there isn’t a global pandemic, as local networks, community partners and in-person meetings are key to the delivery of our work. (Exceptions to this policy can of course be made to support disabled applicants, where working from home would be considered a reasonable adjustment).
HOW TO APPLY
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: 18th February at midnight
Make sure you’ve read this job pack fully and meet the essential criteria. Let us know if you need it in a different format!
Send an email with:
A cover letter (500 words max)
A CV of your relevant experience (2 pages max)
Please title your email ‘Producer Application’ and send to laurie@wearezooco.co.uk. What we are looking for: In your application, we really want to know about you, why you want to work with Zoo Co specifically, and why you think this job description reflects your skills and experiences. We welcome honest, personable and succinct responses that allow us to get to know both you and your work.
Fill in our Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form here (this will not be attached to your application, and is anonymised): https://forms.gle/769tuiqqnJq87vXy8
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
We will let you know if you have been unsuccessful before the interview stage and let you know if you have been successful with as much notice as possible (probably around 4-5 working days).
First stage interviews will take place on Zoom on 24th and 25th February and will be 45 minutes. These will be with the Artistic Director and two members of our board (unless it is entirely safe to meet in person, but we doubt that will be the case!).
After first interview stages, a shortlist 2 or 3 candidates will be invited to spend one day of paid time with the Zoo Co team (possibly remotely) to respond to a project brief and share their ideas informally with the team. It's a chance to find out more about the role, and to get to know you better (and vice versa). These dates will be booked flexibly around other commitments in early March.
We will offer feedback to all candidates who are selected for the interview and shortlist process. We are not able to offer feedback to all applicants, due to our limited staff team at present.
Access Statement for Our Recruitment Processes:
We hope that this application process reflects an accessible, succinct amount of work at this opening stage. If we can make it more accessible to you, please let us know by emailing laurie@wearezooco.co.uk.
Applicants are welcome to send applications in a different format, such as submitting a video instead of a cover letter. Videos should be a maximum of 3-4 mins.
You are welcome to apply using BSL or spoken English and BSL applications will be watched by competent signers, a Deaf board member, and an interpreter to ensure full comprehension. There is no need to caption your video.
If you have any access requirements, do let us know and we will endeavour to meet them. We have a budget set aside for BSL interpreters/ support workers for the interview stages to ensure this process is accessible for d/Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse applicants, and an Access Coordinator who can discuss your access needs with you confidentially, and who will be able to deliver any access requirements for the successful candidate. If you need support to apply, let us know.
Wheelchair access at Stanley Arts:
We have a company policy that we never work in non-wheelchair accessible spaces where there is a chance this could exclude somebody. Our office is wheelchair accessible, with a disabled loo via lift access just outside. Stanley Arts is an old building, with a small number of spaces that have limited accessibility, (most are fully accessible). We will not work in any parts of the building not accessible to all our staff, artists and participants, and are working with the building to help them deliver full wheelchair access which is already underway.
Open Recruitment Statement:
We endeavour to make sure this process reaches as many people as possible, and to ensure we are part of the solution in terms making opportunities accessible to creative leaders from different backgrounds and lesser represented groups in the arts/ leadership roles, including in terms of race, sexuality, class, gender, disability and those with care responsibilities.
Therefore, if we do not feel we have successfully reached a diversity of applicants, we know we have done something wrong! If this is the case, we will extend the recruitment process in order to regroup and make sure we are doing the leg-work to ensure people from lesser represented backgrounds can apply for this role. We will email all applicants to let you know if this is the case.
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Thank you for taking time to read through this information, and for considering a role with Zoo Co. We are so excited to find our new Producer and team member.