Director of Learning and Community Engagement - Manhattan Theatre Club · Until Filled New York, NY - Connect The Arts : Job Details

Director of Learning and Community Engagement - Manhattan Theatre Club

Posted 6 days ago

Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC), incorporated in 1970 as a not-for-profit organization, is one of the leading producers of Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, and it is known for its highest quality, award-winning theatrical productions of new work by American and international playwrights. MTC started as a small off-off-Broadway showcase into one of the country's most prestigious theater companies, creating approximately 600 world, American, New York, and Broadway premieres. Plays that premiered at MTC have been produced throughout the country and around the globe and have contributed a proud legacy to the American theatrical canon.

In 1978, MTC's production of Ain't Misbehavin', a revue comprised of the songs of Fats Waller which won the Tony Award for Best Musical, was its first high-profile success. Since then, MTC productions have garnered 28 Tony Awards, 7 Pulitzer Prizes, and 50 Drama Desk Awards, as well as numerous Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle, Obie, Drama League, and Theatre World Awards. MTC has won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Achievement, a Drama Desk for Outstanding Excellence, and a Theatre World for Outstanding Achievement. Former productions include James Ijames' Pulitzer-Prize winning Fat Ham, the world premiere of Jocelyn Bioh's Jaja's African Hair Braiding, Ruben Santiago-Hudson's Lackawanna Blues, Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau, the Broadway premiere of How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel, Choir Boy by Tarell Alvin McCraney, August Wilson's Jitney and The Piano Lesson, The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez, Ruined by Lynn Nottage, Proof by David Auburn, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife by Charles Busch, Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley, and Love! Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally, among many others.

MTC performs in three venues, including its Broadway home at the 650 seat Samuel J. Friedman Theatre—formerly Biltmore Theatre—which was restored and reopened in 2003, and two at New York City Center Off Broadway, where MTC created the 300-seat Stage I and the 150-seat Stage II. The 2023-2024 season includes Jonathan Spector's Eureka Day, Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, and Erika Sheffer's Vladimir.

MTC's commitment to excellence extends to every aspect of the company, including a gifted staff, a supportive and committed Board of Directors, a first-rate education program, a robust behind-the-scenes development program for new work, and a high-quality paid career training program, which prepares the next generation of theater professionals for jobs at MTC and beyond. MTC's education programs encompass a diverse range of initiatives aimed at empowering learners to engage joyfully and authentically with live theater as authors, audience members, and administrators. These programs include in-school residencies in classrooms, workshops, supportive artistic collaborations with not-for-profit community-based organizations, and career development opportunities for early career professionals, all providing participants with hands-on experience and mentorship from industry professionals.

Since its founding in 1989, MTC's education program has served more than 100,000 students of all ages in New York City, nationally, and internationally, and its Artistic Development program offers a wide range of commissions, dramaturgical support, readings, and workshops. MTC is committed to being an antiracist organization that respects and honors all voices while upholding the values of community, equity, access, and belonging. To this end, MTC has been reviewing and updating its policies and practices in order to create an inclusive, anti-racist environment for its artists, staff members, and audiences.

Some recent actions, among many, include ensuring that the artists whose work is on MTC stages represent a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives, providing hundreds of seats to productions at discounted community rates, supplying select community groups with complimentary seats to each production, establishing a portal for the companies of MTC shows to report Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) concerns, providing administrative staff with Unconscious Bias Training, and delivering access to training materials to company members of all shows.

MTC is led by Artistic Director Lynne Meadow, Executive Director Chris Jennings, and a 36-member Board of Directors (Board) led by Chairman David C. Hodgson. The MTC Operating Budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, was roughly $29 million. The education budget for the current fiscal year is roughly $1 million.

The Director of Learning and Community Engagement will be an innovative thought leader, strong collaborator, and skillful public advocate, with a fervent commitment to community engagement and relationship development. In addition to planning for the future of MTC's Learning and Community Engagement Program, they they will guide a multifaceted operation of dynamic, innovative programs, serving more than 3,000 individuals annually. As the first education program created by a major New York theater company, the MTC program is rooted in the tenets of aesthetic education and focused on the values of community and connection, inquiry and reflection, and authenticity in storytelling. Equity, diversity, inclusion, and access are central to all aspects of programming. The Director will ensure that that work continues while expanding on its execution and heightening the program's profile in the education, youth development, and philanthropic communities.

Strategic Planning and Program Development:

• Develop, refine, implement, and evaluate the Learning and Community Engagement Program's vision, mission, core values, and goals, working in collaboration and consulting with the Executive Director, the Artistic Director, department staff, and other department heads.
• Assess current programming for adherence to mission and core values and collaborate with department staff and teaching artists to conceive and implement new programming, including that which may generate income.
• Engage in partnership with the teaching artist faculty on the execution of programming.
• Ensure that all department activities support and enhance MTC's EDI values.
• Embrace other strategic planning and program development duties, as needed.

School and Community Engagement:

• Build and steward relationships and partnerships with community, social service, and government organizations as appropriate.
• Sustain and expand relationships with current and potential partner schools both in NYC and around the region.
• Create and plan appropriate curricula for in-school programs in collaboration with department staff, teaching artists, and in communication with the relevant partners.
• Explore and identify opportunities for additional programmatic activities serving current and future partners.
• Embrace other school and community engagement duties, as needed.

Team and Artist Leadership:

• Cultivate a culture of openness, support, and mutual learning with the staff and teaching artists.
• Create and facilitate opportunities for professional development of staff and teaching artists in support of department programs.
• Participate as a full member of the senior leadership team with the other department heads, devising ways to mutually support each department's activities.
• Embrace other team and artist leadership duties, as needed.

Fiscal Responsibility and Revenue Generation:

• Develop the departmental budget for review and approval by the Executive Director, collaborating with appropriate staff.
• Collaborate with the development department on donor prospecting and cultivation, grant proposals, and reports.
• Supervise budget implementation, ensuring proper resourcing and maintaining fiscal responsibility.
• Report to the Executive Director and, if requested, to the Board, on departmental activities and progress, including financial updates.
• Embrace other fiscal responsibility and revenue generation duties, as needed.

Traits and Characteristics: The incoming Director of Learning and Community Engagement at MTC will possess a unique blend of skills in collaboration, analysis, decision-making, and self-awareness. They recognize the talents and contributions of others while demonstrating the capacity for inclusive leadership, forward-thinking, effective planning, creativity, and goal-oriented action. The role requires a leader who values and exhibits behaviors that center on relationship-building, active engagement, customer focus, adaptability, and effective communication and collaboration.

Other key competencies include:

• Leadership and Influencing Others – Organizing and personally affecting other people to believe in a vision while creating a sense of purpose and direction.
• Planning, Organizing, and Goal Orientation – Setting, pursuing, and attaining goals, regardless of obstacles or circumstances while remaining answerable for personal actions.
• Futuristic and Conceptual Thinking – Imagining and envisioning what has yet to be realized, analyzing hypothetical situations, trends, patterns, and concepts to formulate connections and new insights.

Qualifications: Demonstrated leadership experience and proven success in the direction and strategic expansion of educational programs. Ability to effectively communicate impact with a wide variety of constituencies. Familiarity with New York City school systems is desirable, and a track record of community engagement is essential. Past experience as a teaching artist or in positive youth development with an understanding of current pedagogical theories and best practices is advantageous. Additional languages beyond English would be valuable. If you do not meet all the qualifications but possess transferable or equivalent skills, experience, or education, we encourage you to apply and highlight those areas.

Compensation and Benefits: MTC provides a competitive and equitable compensation package in the range of $120,000 to $140,000, with benefits that include paid time off and holidays; health insurance; long-term disability and basic life insurance; and an optional 401(k) retirement plan.

Manhattan Theatre Club is committed to being an anti-racist organization that respects and honors all voices while upholding the values of community, equity, access, and belonging. We understand that the United States is a country founded on white supremacy and anti-blackness, and that these belief systems are tightly woven throughout American arts and culture. We recognize MTC's place within that history and understand that uprooting biases requires ongoing work. To this end, we have been reviewing, and are continuing to review, our policies and practices in order to create an inclusive, anti-racist environment for our artists, staff members, and audiences. We wish to express solidarity with and gratitude towards those from historically oppressed communities whose voices have raised consciousness and encouraged action.

For questions or general inquiries about this job opportunity, please contact:Dat Ngo, Vice PresidentFlora Stamatiades, Vice President1040 First Avenue, Suite 352New York, NY 10022-2991Tel (888) ###.#### Ext. 235 (Ngo) Ext. 238 (Stamatiades)Email [email protected]