Careers in theatre

7 min read

Step into the spotlight and explore exciting careers in theatre. Find opportunities to showcase your talent and pursue your passion.

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If you love drama there are lots of careers to consider that connect to the theatre. Creative types might enjoy roles such as directing, playwriting or theatre design, while practical people are needed for jobs such as lighting technician or stage crew member. Good people skills are needed in most roles, but particularly if you’re helping audience members day in, day out as part of the front-of-house team. And showbusiness is just that – a business, which requires producers and marketing staff to make sure that tickets sell.

Just a word of warning – theatre careers are extremely popular, so they’re very competitive to get into and not particularly well paid. Once you’re in, quite a lot of the jobs involve working freelance – that is, working for different employers on different shows, rather than having a permanent job. So you’ll need to carry on competing for work even once you’ve established a career. Make sure it’s definitely what you want to do before you commit by finding work experience placements and getting involved in as many shows as possible at school or in your local community.

Careers as an actor

Most actors get work via an agent, who puts them forward for auditions for suitable parts and in return is paid a percentage of the actor’s earnings. It’s harder to get paid acting work if you don’t have an agent, but getting an agent can itself be a challenge. There are lots of would-be professional actors and each agent only needs a certain number of actors on their books and wants a range of ages, genders and appearances.

一个典型的途径成为一个演员是一个acting course at a drama school, and to try to get an agent during or after this process. A good drama school will organise showcase performances for its final-year students and invite agents to come to watch; the more prestigious the school, the more likely they are to attend. Some students will get an agent via this process, but not all.

However, not all actors go to drama school. If you have good contacts or good luck, you may be able to get yourself an agent without going to drama school, or land your first paid part by yourself and take it from there.

Careers as a director

Theatre directors as responsible for bringing a show to life. They usually work freelance. That is, they are offered work by different theatres and theatre companies on a play-by-play basis, instead of having a permanent job. There are some ‘artistic director’ jobs available for experienced directors, which involve helping to run a theatre or theatre company but may also involve directing plays. Alternatively, some directors run their own theatre companies, especially when they are first starting out.

There’s no clear path to becoming a theatre director and it’s a very competitive job to get into. It can be a bit chicken-and-egg in that you’re unlikely to get hired to direct a professional show unless you have professional directing experience. But there are still steps you can take, for example: by getting involved in drama in any way (for example, through amateur dramatic societies, volunteering at a theatre and directing student shows and firms) and by taking part in workshops.

Careers as a producer

Theatre producers are in charge of the practicalities of making theatre productions happen. They could work for a theatre or for a theatre company or thy could be self-employed. Their work can include:

  • planning budgets and timetables and making sure these are stuck to
  • making sure that spending is recorded and that salaries, expenses and tax are paid
  • working to make sure that as many tickets are sold as possible
  • seeking out funding, such as money from investors, sponsorship or grants (money from government or charities that doesn’t have to be paid back)
  • ensuring that all the different teams are working towards their goals and communicating with each other
  • overseeing legal matters such as employment contracts, insurance cover and copyright
  • finding and hiring venues and rehearsal spaces (if working for a theatre company that doesn’t have its own)
  • managing the admin related to tours, such as booking transport and accommodation for the cast and crew
  • helping plan what productions to stage in future and when these will be, in collaboration with other key team members.

Production assistant jobs are a good first step into becoming a producer. These are available with theatres and theatre companies, and involve assisting a producer. You’ll usually need some sort of experience working in theatre to get these jobs, though it could be voluntary work or something in a different theatre role (eg working front of house or in the box office).

Careers as a playwright

你能写一篇原创剧本玩还是米usical? There aren’t any qualifications you need to be a playwright – the ability to write a good script is what counts. However, you’ll need to work hard to develop this skill by reading and seeing lots of plays and practising your writing.

Once you’ve developed your skills and written work you’re happy with, it’s time to try to get noticed by the professional theatre world. There are competitions you can enter and workshops and courses with prestigious organisations that you can compete for a place on. Some theatres and theatre companies read and consider plays sent in by unknown writers – though even if they like you, it’s more likely that they will invite you to participate in further learning activities with them rather than paying you and putting on your first play.

Careers as a stage manager

Stage managers make sure that a show runs smoothly. Their job has two parts.

  1. While a show is still at the rehearsal stage, they help with the practicalities of running rehearsals and ensure that any decisions or changes that the director makes are communicated to others who need to know about them.
  2. Once the show is up and running on stage, the stage manager is responsible for everything that happens backstage, including making sure that cast members and props are in the right place at the right time and ensuring that lighting, sound and scene changes happen correctly.

A typical path to becoming a stage manager is to study a stage management course at university. After university, a usual first step would be to look for work as an assistant stage manager, then progress up to deputy stage manager.

However, if you don’t fancy going to university, you may be able to work your way up to assistant stage manager level by starting out as a stage crew member, for example at a local theatre.

Careers as a set designer

Set designers work closely with directors to design a set that has visual impact and ties in with the director’s vision for the production. Set designers often set the overall tone for costume and lighting design too, so all these elements work together.

A typical route to becoming a set designer is to study theatre design at university. There are courses available at both undergraduate level (for students going to university for the first time) and postgraduate level (for students who already have an undergraduate degree). Typically you’ll learn a range of design and construction skills, covering both set and costume and sometimes lighting.

Careers as a theatre lighting designer, sound designer, lighting technician or sound technician

Theatre lighting designers and sound designers help create the world of the play to draw audience members in – their work is both artistic and technical. Lighting and sound technicians support this, doing much of the practical work needed to set up for a show. There are permanent jobs available, although most professionals work as freelancers.

A typical path to a career as a lighting or sound designer is to take a relevant university degree, then work as a lighting or sound technician for a few years to gain experience and build up contacts.

There are some specific degree courses available, such as theatre lighting design and theatre sound. There are also broader technical theatre degrees that typically cover a range of areas such as lighting, sound, stage management and set design, and sometime also set construction, costume making, video design and production management. If you don’t want to go to university, there are a few apprenticeships and college-level vocational qualifications.

Careers as a stage crew member

Stage crew are responsible for preparing the stage for actors to perform on, making any necessary adjustments such as set changes during performances and clearing everything away once the show is over. On touring productions, this includes loading the set and any other equipment into and out of vans.

Sometimes stage crew are involved in actually constructing the set, for example using carpentry or metalwork skills; other times they just need to get it safely and securely in place on the stage. In some instances the stage crew will help set up sound and lighting equipment, under instruction from the sound and lighting teams.

Duties during the performance vary depending on the show. On a very traditional production the stage crew might fly in backcloths from above, open and close stage curtains between acts and perform set changes. More modern productions may use minimal set and have any set changes made by the cast in full view of the audience, but could have automated elements of the set or stage (such as a revolve, which turns part of the stage floor round in circles), which need operating. You’re unlikely to be let loose on complicated machinery as a junior stage crew member, but could be trained up over time.

You don’t tend to need any specific qualifications to get into a career as a stage crew member. However, qualifications in subjects such as carpentry could be useful And experience working on school, youth theatre or amateur shows will help.

Look out for entry-level opportunities with local theatres or with agencies that supply stage crew members for live events – to start with you may need to work on a casual basis as and when there is work. There’s also a creative venue technician apprenticeship available, which covers a range of roles connected to stage crew and sound and lighting duties.

Careers as a fight director, aka fight choreographer

Fight directors, also known as fight choreographers, work with actors and directors to create and teach the stage combat sequences you see on stage. This can involve unarmed combat (eg kicks and punches) or armed combat (eg sword fighting). The aim is to create dramatic, realistic-looking violence while making sure the cast stay safe. Fight directors often work freelance (that is, they are employed by different theatre companies on different plays) and often teach stage combat too – for example to acting students or on courses for amateur or professional actors.

The first step towards becoming a fight director is to train and take qualifications to an advanced level with an organisation specialising in dramatic fight combat. There’s then a couple of further stages of training and assessment to go through to get onto the register of fight directors approved by Equity (the theatre union).

Fight directors need a good understanding of theatre and storytelling so that their fights work in context and don’t just look like people randomly attacking each other. You’ll probably find that studying drama or acting at school, college or university will help you. Acting degrees will typically include some stage combat, and might lead to qualifications with the above organisations, though check the details and the level of qualification carefully. Some drama degrees also include an element of stage combat, though it’s less common.

Front-of-house theatre careers

前台工作人员照顾观众when they visit the theatre or get in touch by phone. Front of house covers box office staff (who sell tickets), ushers (who check tickets, direct people to their seats and sell programmes and ice creams), bar staff, cloakroom attendants and anyone else who interacts with the audience – for example, customer-facing staff in a shop or café if the theatre is big enough to have these. Often front-of-house jobs are part time rather than full time.

To get a front-of-house job in a theatre, it helps to have had a similar job elsewhere, for example serving customers in a pub, restaurant, shop, hotel or visitor attraction. It’s also good to have had some involvement in theatre or drama to show you are interested. Some theatres now fill quite a few of their front-of-house roles with volunteers – at these organisations, you may find it easier to get paid work if you volunteer first.

Working front of house can be a useful first job in theatre if you want a career in an off-stage, business-focused role.

Careers as a theatre marketing assistant, marketing officer or marketing manager

Theatres need to attract audiences and it’s the marketing department’s job to do so. They need to decide who to target (which might differ from one show to another), decide how best to get their attention, put plans in action and then assess their success. Activities can include:

  • communicating with the creative team to decide what to say about a show
  • liaising with the media and organising press nights (some of this activity may be carried out by a colleague in PR or a PR agency)
  • writing content for publicity materials and programmes
  • updating the theatre’s website
  • promoting shows and the theatre itself via social media
  • writing and sending emails, such as weekly newsletters, to potential audience members on the theatre’s database
  • liaising with graphic designers and printers about printed materials (eg posters, brochures, flyers and programmes)
  • organising promotions such as discounts and making sure the box office staff are aware of these.

你的第一个剧场可能的市场营销工作be as a marketing assistant. Sometimes theatres like their marketing assistants to have a degree, but not always. If you want to study a relevant subject you could consider English, business studies, marketing or anything related to theatre, though it’s not essential to do so.

Careers as a dramatherapist

Dramatherapists don’t tend to work in theatres, but their work is closely connected. They use drama as a way to help people explore and understand their feelings and behaviours, and find ways to bring about improvements in their lives. For example, they can work with people who are facing mental or physical health problems or behavioural issues, or who have autism, dementia or a learning difficulty. Dramatherapists can work in settings such as the NHS, schools, prisons, young offenders’ institutions and charities

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