ARTISTIC PRODUCER

Description

Paprika Theatre Festival

For the past 23 years, Paprika Theatre Festival (Paprika) has been the home of the emerging artist. We are a year-round, youth-led performing arts organization celebrating the work of young and emerging artists. Paprika programs are built around a strong focus on mentorship and training, and we are guided by the four core values of accessibility, artistic development, community, and youth leadership. Rotating educational programs include: Creators Unit, Playwrights Unit, Directors Lab, Indigenous Arts Program, Design Lab, and Creative Producers. These programs run between October and May, culminating in an annual Festival. For more information, please visit, www.paprikafestival.com.

Job Description

The role of Artistic Producer (“AP”) for Paprika is a unique and exciting opportunity for someone at the early stages of their artistic and leadership career. It is a dynamic role that requires experience in theatre creation, production, and arts management. This position is ideal for a community-engaged artist, passionate about youth mentorship, who is looking to take on one of their first leadership roles.

The primary work of the AP is to oversee Paprika’s artistic programming, and work collaboratively with General Manager in overseeing the organization’s operations. They function as a resource point for emerging artists looking to share their artistic material. The AP connects young and emerging artists to the professional arts community and should be knowledgeable about the diversity of professional theatre artists, institutions, and community-engaged arts groups in Toronto and beyond. The AP works as a partner to the General Manager and assists in the administrative duties of the organization, including grant writing, contract negotiation, production resourcing, marketing and outreach, and development. This partnership is critical to a healthy management structure, which in the past has included between three to five part-time collaborators on the team for most of the year.

This is a part-time leadership position, with flexible hours that can be arranged to accommodate the applicant’s schedule and other artistic projects. The job is hybrid with a mix of in person work in Toronto, and remote work.

Training hours with the outgoing Artistic Producer are also available, with hours beginning in June 2024. Mentorship and professional development opportunities are available.

This position is approximately 24 hours a week, with reduced hours in the summer months.

Typical peak work-periods include:

1. Mid-August to late October

2. Late-November to the winter Holiday break.

3. Mid-March to Festival (May)

Who are we looking for?

Due to Paprika’s mandate to be led by emerging artists, the ideal candidate will self identify as emerging in their career.

Candidates that identify as Indigenous, Black, PoC or as members of other equity-deserving groups are strongly encouraged to apply – we’d love to hear from you!

Ideal Qualities and Interests

– Passion for theatre, mentorship, and community building

– Strong communication skills

– A demonstrated dedication to accessibility and intersectionality in your personal leadership and artistic practices, and a passion to continue to grow in these areas

– Experience producing theatre and/or community events

– Experience and interest in working with young people of all abilities from all cultural and economic backgrounds, including Indigenous youth

– Strong time/project management abilities and professional writing skills

– Experience in theatre-making, dramaturgy, and new play development is an asset

– The ability and dedication to be an active advocate for Paprika within the industry and wider community

– An interest in growing your leadership skills and in developing new ways of working, creating, and leading organizations that prio

– Training or experience in arts education and producing is an asset, however please note that formal training is not a requirement to apply to this job

Key Responsibilities

Artistic

– Plan and execute Paprika’s training programs, which will rotate on a bi-annual basis

– Create evaluations for participants to reflect on their work within the programs

– Coordinate annual participant outreach, interviews, and selection

– Hire artistic mentors, program facilitators, guest artists, Production Manager, Festival Lighting Designer, and other personnel to execute Festival Production

– Oversee additional programming, including Training Days, Technical Theatre Workshops, community outreach events, and other programming that align with Paprika’s mandate and values

– In collaboration with the Production Manager and the Festival Lighting Designer, schedule and coordinate tech week and festival week

-Ongoing mentorship of youth participants (via correspondence, visiting rehearsals and programs)

– Ongoing communication and coordination with mentors and program facilitators

Administrative

– Work collaboratively in a co-leadership model with the General Manager to:

– Write, administer and report on grant applications

– Research new development and fundraising opportunities to support the organization’s artistic programming

– Gather and organize information for reporting purposes and measuring impact

– Steward current partnerships and pursue new partnerships with theatre companies and organizations

– Organize outreach visits and workshops with local schools and youth organizations

– Attend Paprika’s team meetings

– Co-manage and provide mentorship as necessary to the executive staff team

– Contribute to the creation and distribution of all marketing materials

– Assist the General Manager in the creation of an operating and program-specific budgets

Paprika is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. Paprika is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. Paprika will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on race, colour, religion or belief, sexuality, gender expression, family or parental status or any other legally protected grounds.

Who’s on the panel?

The hiring committee will be made up of Paprika Board members, community members and former Paprika participants.

How can we help?

Accommodations are available throughout the hiring process. Please email [email protected] to let us know how we can best support your needs.

Access offerings we can currently provide for the application/hiring process include:

– Word doc version of the job posting

– Audio version of the job posting

– Applicants can provide a video version of their cover letter if they choose to

– Written copies of the interview questions can be provided for reference in the interview

– Live captioning can be provided in the interview

– Camera-off time during the interview

– Paprika also offers a hybrid work environment with flexible schedule

If there’s a reasonable adjustment you’d like to request that’s not on this list, please let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate.

All candidates asked to interview will be paid $75 per interview.

How to Apply:

In order to apply for this position, please email your cover letter and resume in a single PDF to [email protected] by May 25 at 11:59pm ET with the subject line “Artistic Producer Application”.

For questions or access requests related to the application process, please contact Michelle Yagi at [email protected]

Paprika thanks all applicants in advance. Only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted by email.

Timeline:

Applications due May 25th, 2024 at 11:59pm ET

First round interviews to take place the 1st week of June over Zoom.

Second round interviews will take place the 3rd week of June over Zoom.

Position starts June 24, 2024, with training hours throughout the summer. Outgoing-AP will be available on a reduced-hourly basis for continued onboarding

Contact Info:

Name: Michelle Yagi, Co-Chair, Paprika Festival Board of Directors
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.paprikafestival.com