Production assistant for Theatre

Closing date: Monday 14 October 2024 at 11.59pm

Salary: £30,000 - £35,000 per year

Contract: Full-time, permanent

Working pattern: Monday to Friday, 9.30 to 17.30

Reports into: Producer for Theatre

Start date: As soon as possible

Office location: Marylebone, London for a minimum of two days/week with flexibility to work from home on other days

Excited about working behind the scenes in theatre? This production assistant role offers the chance to support everything from artist contracts to workshops.

The Roald Dahl Story Company (RDSC) is the home of Roald Dahl’s beloved stories and characters. With over 300 million books sold globally and translated into 68 languages, we’re one of the world’s greatest story brands. We’re now part of Netflix, and together, united by our love of these great stories, we’re building a unique Roald Dahl universe.

We are working with some of the world’s best storytellers and creative minds to bring our stories to life in ways that will delight current and new fans across animated and live action films and series; publishing; theatre; immersive experiences; games; consumer products; brand partnerships and more. It’s an exciting time to join our team!

The Production Assistant for Theatre will support the Producers and Executive Producer with the logistical and administrative elements of producing. You will report into the Producers, and also work closely with the Artistic Director and Artistic Associate. Beyond the Theatre Division, the Production Assistant will need to work with teams across the organisation to ensure that projects align with the company’s mission, brand strategy, and broader activity plans.

Overall, you will support the Theatre Division in ensuring all of our projects meet our ambition to make brilliant, innovative, relevant and populist work with a strong commercial focus.

Responsibilities

Relationships with Artists (Writers, Composers, Lyricists, Directors, Designers etc.)

• Supporting the contractual process for Commissions including noting up agreements working closely with the Producers, our representative, and specialist legal support where necessary


• Support the contractual process for other creative team members including working with the Producers for drafting development contracts


• Organise travel and accommodation for artists as required


• Work with the whole team to ensure that relationships with Artists are well supported and productive

Development workshops

• Overseeing schedule and logistics of all workshop processes, in conjunction with the Producers


• All administrative tasks associated with workshop preparation, such as printing scripts and scores, hiring/ sourcing equipment and props, drawing up contact sheets, preparing the rehearsal room, ensuring health and safety compliance, video recording and inviting guests


• Working with the Producers to draft and manage artist contracts for development workshops

Casting support

• Availability checking for workshops and productions


• Coordination of audition days as required by casting directors attached to projects


• Preparing and managing cast contracting

Amateur, schools and international licensing

• Responding to requests for licenses from agents at Casarotto Ramsay, David Higham and any direct requests made


• Occasionally reviewing and updating licensing policies alongside the Producers

Project producing

• Act as line producer on any RD project, title or special event, as required

Team support

• General administrative support and IT Management


• Booking theatre tickets


• Booking travel and accommodation for the theatre team as required


• Keeping and distributing minutes of meetings as required


• Managing the Theatre Team diary


• Booking meeting rooms


• Keeping the Artist Database up to date and populated


• Updating theatre slate documents for Brand and Marketing and generally keeping the wider company informed of the progress of our projects


• Working with PR and design teams to manage relationship gifting

General

• Being a proactive member of the company and Theatre Team, attending regular company and team meetings


• Seeing theatre shows and sharing opinions with the team


• Attending showcases and providing feedback


• Reading drafts and listening to demos of commissioned work, sharing opinions with the team


• Representing RDSC in the delivery of all phases of work


• Financial administration including managing income and expenditure in collaboration with the Producers


• Budget drafting and budget management as required

In addition to the above, other such duties and responsibilities as we may notify you of from time to time.

Knowledge, skills and experience

This job would suit a candidate with experience working with a producing theatre or company, who is used to supporting the commissioning and development of new work; or a candidate who has experience working with a large-scale creative company in an administration capacity. There is scope for growth within this role as our productions develop.

The majority of our shows are mid to large scale commercial family musicals. We recognise that not everyone will have hands-on experience working on a family musical. You may have had a different career path than that suggested here, and yet you may still have the following key skills and experience that we are looking for:

• Passionate about creating brilliant family theatre which appeals to a broad audience, and an interest in musical theatre


• Be a Roald Dahl fan who understands the power of the stories and the strength of the brand


• Hold experience of the theatre sector in the UK


• Have worked on theatre productions or events


• Be keen to develop familiarity with Writers’ Agreements and Directors’ Agreements such as SOLT/Equity and/or UK Theatre/Equity


• Demonstrates a strong interest in the contractual, administrative and logistical elements of producing


• Have commitment to equality, diversity and representation


• Have a keen eye for detail, and works with rigour and persistence


• Have strong interpersonal skills, as well as the ability to work successfully within a small team, and collaboratively with other departments


• Have the ability to work independently and confidently adapt to a fast-moving business


• Have strong verbal and written communication skills


• Have excellent Microsoft Office skills, including Excel and the ability to use GSuite

We believe in diversity and inclusion and we want to attract the broadest range of talented people to work with us. We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. Simply let us know if you require any adjustments in order for you to complete the application and/ or interview process so that we can help.

The Theatre Team

The Theatre Division was set up in 2018 to commission, develop and produce new plays and musicals based on Roald Dahl stories. We work in partnership with co-producers, aiming to find long-term commercially successful pathways for our productions. In 2023 and 2024 we co-produced major new musical productions of The Witches and The Enormous Crocodile and we currently have a number of productions in development, across a range of scales and production models, including: James and the Giant Peach; The BFG; Danny the Champion of the World; The Twits; The Enormous Crocodile and The Witches.

The Theatre team consists of Jenny Worton (Artistic Director); Anna Schmitz (Executive Producer); Gabrielle Leadbeater and Gareth Collins (Producers), and Amy Hodge (Artistic Associate). They work closely with our representatives at Casarotto Ramsay and Associates on underlying rights management.

The Production Assistant will work alongside other departments in the organisation including: Publishing; Brand, Communications and Design; Licensing & Product; Partnerships; TV & Film; and Finance, HR & Legal.

What’s important to us

Our vision for Theatre is to create theatrical adaptations which are innovative, relevant, populist and as brilliant as the original stories. These stories contain a promise for individual empowerment, which means they can and should be for everyone.

So, we think hard about who gets to interpret these stories for a modern audience. We work to construct surprising and bespoke teams for every stage play, musical or other live event in the pursuit of a robust dialogue between Dahl the timeless storyteller, and the contemporary artist thinking of today’s audiences. That’s where we believe theatre magic is made.

It is important to us that we appoint artistic teams from diverse backgrounds, and we recognise our theatre work needs to be representative of contemporary society for these stories to continue to find as wide an audience as possible, ever evolving as each new generation comes to them.

It is core to our company culture that Roald Dahl Story Company team members are empowered to bring their own viewpoint about what these stories can mean for today’s audiences.

Why join us?

We really care for our team and encourage a positive work/life balance for all. We’ve also put a lot of thought into creating the perfect office environment and culture for everyone to enjoy, including a kitchen stocked with an assortment of refreshments, and an on-site shower complete with towels and toiletries.

The Production Assistant can also benefit from:

• Flexible Working: Flexi-time and hybrid working with a minimum of 2 days in the office per week


• Wellbeing & Mental Health Support: Access to coaching or therapy sessions, wellbeing workshops and self-guided content via Oliva. Plus access to Unum’s Help@Hand app which offers EAP and mental health and wellbeing services


• 28 days’ annual leave allowance plus UK bank holidays


• Workplace Pension Scheme: 2% employee and 7% employer contribution


• Optional opt in to Bupa Private Medical Insurance


• Group Income Protection scheme


• Life Assurance at 2x annual salary


• 1 months’ paid sabbatical after 5 years’ service


• Interest-Free Season Ticket Loan


• Weekly online yoga class


• Daily snacks, drinks and breakfast supplies and lunch provided monthly at company All Hands Days


• Social events: Annual summer and year-end events, plus ad-hoc events such as film screenings/ premieres


• Charity matching: £250 donation contribution per year to anyone fundraising for a registered charity. Matching of staff donations towards a registered charity up to £1000 per year

How to apply

We use a helpful applicant tracking system to receive all applications. There, you will be required to complete your contact details, complete screening questions and upload a copy of your CV. We kindly request that you do not email us directly with your application as we find it easier to manage the entire process if they are all kept safely in one place. We aim to conduct the interview stages on the week commencing 28 October and will notify candidates in advance regarding the structure of the discussions as well as who will be present on the interview panels.

If you are not sure if this role is right for you, feel free to reach out to recruitment@roalddahl.com to arrange an informal conversation about the role: you might be exactly the person we are looking for! We can do this by phone, or any other channel that works for you, and this conversation won’t be assessed.

The Roald Dahl Story Company is committed to equality of opportunity for all employees. Applications from individuals are encouraged regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, transgender status, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity.

We kindly ask for applicants to complete our equal opportunities monitoring questionnaire as part of their application: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/pa0924/. The information that you provide will not be used to influence our recruitment decisions.

Please state in your application that you found this role through Creative Access.

Please ask for details of our privacy notice and/ or recruitment privacy policy regarding how your personal data will be handled for the purpose of recruitment and selection.