Director, Playwrights Horizons Theater School
Job Summary:
Provide artistic and strategic vision, curricular development, educational guidance and institutional stability to Playwrights Horizons Theater School in alignment with the mission of Playwrights Horizons. Through dynamic and high visibility leadership, the Director creates an atmosphere of learning and collaboration that demands the highest artistic and academic standards from both students and faculty. The principal liaison between Playwrights Horizons and the NYU/Tisch University Department of Drama.
Goals and objectives:
- Develop and meet all academic and artistic goals of the theater training program.
- Focus the academic and artistic goals of the school to meet the highest standards of NYU and Playwrights Horizons.
- In collaboration with Executive Leadership, develop strategic vision and short -term and long- term goals for the theater school program
- Build and foster a vital and creative community for students, faculty and staff.
- Represent the school to both its internal and external communities. Manage relationships with NYU and external artistic communities.
- Oversee school-wide events and programming.
- Engage in conflict resolution among students, faculty, and staff.
- Report to Executive leadership and the Playwrights Horizons Board of Trustees, as well as reporting to NYU on curricular and other matters
Responsibilities:
NYU Tisch Department of Drama:
- Serve as a liaison between NYU Tisch Department of Drama, students, faculty and theater school staff.
- Assure that all contractual obligations are being met.
- Participate with the Department of Drama Chair to identify and define required professional training classes, course prerequisites and classifications.
- Attend all NYU Studio Heads and Faculty meetings and all Department of Drama retreats, ceremonies and special events.
- Participate in the NYU Tisch Department of Drama Artistic Review process, an assessment component of the annual application cycle for incoming students.
Faculty:
- Recruit, train and mentor faculty.
- Lead faculty in program development and curricular goals.
- Facilitate Faculty and Faculty Leadership Committee meetings
- Oversee syllabi and course development.
Students:
- Counsel and mentor students on their academic and artistic goals.
- Inform students about curricular requirements, production and internship opportunities, and individualized study opportunities.
- Communicate all theater school policies, curricular and classroom structures and formats, and evaluation protocols.
- Coordinate with NYU’s Student Affairs Office, the Department of Drama’s Student Services Director, and Academic Advisement.
- Observe students in the classroom and attend curricular productions, projects, workshops and presentations.
Theater School Administration:
- Facilitate and foster a strong working relationship with the Artistic and Managing Directors and Board of Trustees.
- Work in collaboration with the Playwrights Downtown Administrative Director to create and oversee the theater school budget.
- Direct and supervise the theater school staff.
- Oversee faculty and staff schedules and academic calendars.
- Coordinate theater school-wide communications.
About Playwrights Horizons:
Playwrights Horizons is a 51-year-old Off-Broadway theater that develops and produces the new work of emerging and established U.S. playwrights and musical theater artists, and operates an undergraduate theater school in conjunction with New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. The producing arm of Playwrights Horizons is one of the country’s most respected programs focused on the development of new work. Playwrights produces 6 or 7 shows a year, commissions and develops new plays and musicals, and offers a host of programs to serve the artistic community and our audiences.
Since 1983, the Playwrights Horizons Theater School has provided thousands of theater students with intensive theater training, through a four-year program that emphasizes theater making, professional development and interdisciplinary theater training. The curriculum includes courses in acting, directing, dramaturgy, playwriting, design, musical theater, movement, voice, speech, script analysis, and theater management for more than 150 students each year.
Third and fourth year students get hands-on practical experience by participating in more than 50 student productions each year, including several original works written and produced by students as well as new work by emerging and established playwrights. Students receive additional instruction and insight from professionals in the theater, film and television industries.
Playwrights Horizons Theater School students graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from New York University. Graduates of the Theater School have gone on to full-time careers in theater, television, and film. Many students have also pursued graduate studies at prestigious universities around the country.
About NYU Tisch Department of Drama:
The NYU Tisch Department of Drama is one of the largest undergraduate drama departments in the world. At the core of the program is the combination of conservatory training across 10 professional training studios and a robust academic curriculum in Theater Studies. The two programs enable students to develop and hone creative and intellectual skills that prepare them to enter, engage, and reinvent the performing arts. At the heart of the department sits a rich production schedule—some 150 shows and projects a year—that enables faculty and students to reconcile theory, training, and creation.
Compensation:
Full time employee benefit package includes: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, & Accident insurance, Paid Time Off, Health Reimbursement Account, Flexible Spending Account, 403(b) Retirement Plan, Half-Day Summer Fridays, and more!
Salary: $125,000
Values Statement:
Playwrights Horizons is committed to building a more just future for everyone -- particularly those from historically oppressed communities, by employing a broad spectrum of voices that will enrich the quality and vitality of our work. Playwrights Horizons is an equal opportunity employer that has a strong institutional commitment to uprooting all systems of oppression by demonstrative equitable and inclusive practices.
The organization is interested in receiving applications from people of all races, sexual orientations, gender identities, ages, classes, religions, and people with disabilities.
The facilities at Playwrights Horizons are fully accessible and ADA compliant.
How to Apply:
Please submit a PDF version of your complete resume, cover letter, a vision statement, and three professional references to jobs@PHnyc.org with PHTS Director in the subject line. No phone calls please.
Full vaccination and booster required for hire