The Other Way Works is seeking an Executive Director

June 3, 2015 by

The Other Way Works is seeking an Executive Director

About the Company

The Other Way Works creates playful theatre that immerses our audiences in the story.
The intimate scenarios we create allow our audiences to explore places and perspectives anew, provoking them to change the way they live their lives.
We believe that the depth of an experience is as valuable as the breadth of people reached.
We are part of a new wave of theatre makers re-inventing the way people engage with culture, utilising new technologies and creating theatre out in the real world.

It’s an exciting time in the development of the company, we are about to re-tour our successful 2008 production ‘Black Tonic‘. Projects in development include ‘Agent in a Box’ a narrative game, and ‘Afterlife’ a creative retreat, and an expansion of our ‘Bandstand’ project.

A key aim for our organisation at this time is to speed up the rate of output and increase the reach of our work, by developing an effective, sustainable, and appropriately resourced operating model to enable this.

To make this happen, The Other Way Works is creating the new senior management role of Executive Director.

About the Role

You’ll work alongside Artistic Director Katie Day to lead and manage the company, working on strategy, organisational development and fundraising, as well as market development and administration.

We’re looking for an ambitious person who loves to make things happen, who supports and champions artists, who is looking for a new challenge at a company where they can effect change and growth, and who enjoys the variety of a workload that goes from strategy and networking to bookkeeping and answering emails. We want someone to join us, who wants to grow with us and build a future for the company that has them in it.

We have some money earmarked to support the role in a freelance capacity for the first few months, but we are clear that the key deliverable will be fundraising to support the Executive Director Role and finding a way to make this role sustainable in the long term.

Key Responsibilities as the role develops

– Building a package of income to deliver activity and support core staff fees/wages over the next 2 years, from mixed sources including Arts Council England, Trusts & Foundations, Research Councils, Consultancy, and Fees & Commissions;
– Opening up new markets for our work including: international touring & co-production; working with brands and other partners; expanding our consultancy offer;
– Taking responsibility for the good running of the Company, enabling it to be risky, ambitious & bold with its theatre work, and freeing up the Artistic Director to spend more time making theatre, delivering workshops, speaking, and mentoring.

Person Specification

Ideally, you will have:

– An interest in interactive and immersive theatre, and the integration of theatre and new technologies;
– 5 years experience of working in the UK Theatre sector, or wider creative sector;
– Experience of writing successful funding bids;
– Experience of driving strategic development in similar organisations;
– Demonstrable experience of setting and managing budgets;
– Good organisational skills;
– Ability to represent the company locally, nationally & internationally.

At the beginning we are flexible about how this role works in terms of location and number of days per week worked, but in the long term we would like the role to be mostly based in Birmingham.

Application Process

Application is by CV and 1-2 page cover letter. We’d like to hear why us and why now, how you work and what motivates you, and what you think you could do with and for us.

Email to: info@theotherwayworks.co.uk
Subject: Executive Director Application

Deadline: 5pm 10 July 2015

The next stage is likely to be an informal meeting with Katie the Artistic Director.

This might be followed by a more formal interview with the Board of Directors

If you have any questions, or would like to clarify any points, please do drop Katie an email to info@theotherwayworks.co.uk.


Information you might find helpful……

The Other Way Works is a company limited by guarantee, with a non-executive board of directors. Founded in 2001, based in Birmingham UK, and led by Artistic Director Katie Day, supported by a team of loyal and talented freelance artists and production staff.

Mission Statement
The Other Way Works creates playful theatre that immerses our audiences in the story.
The intimate scenarios we create allow our audiences to explore places and perspectives anew, provoking them to change the way they live their lives.
We believe that the depth of an experience is as valuable as the breadth of people reached.
We are part of a new wave of theatre makers re-inventing the way people engage with culture, utilising new technologies and creating theatre out in the real world.

The Other Way Works Strategic Objectives 2015-2018

1. Develop an effective, sustainable, and appropriately resourced operating model;
2. Deliver excellent theatre experiences;
3. Create work that develops and re-imagines the theatrical form;
4. Explore how technologies can be used to help us deliver and scale our work;
5. Build a strong national and international reputation for the Company’s work.

Opportunities to see our work

Black Tonic 2015 Tour in September & October to Birmingham (REP), Bristol (Watershed) & Bradford (Theatre in the Mill) http://www.theotherwayworks.co.uk/portfolio/black-tonic/ ;

Bandstand – http://www.theotherwayworks.co.uk/portfolio/bandstand/ – get the app, or download the MP3s from http://www.bandstandaudio.net/bandstand-mp3-files/

Video documentation of shows and projects can be found on our website www.theotherwayworks.co.uk, and longer filmed versions of Black Tonic & Avon Calling can be accessed online with passwords – please email for these.

Download this as a PDF

Avon Calling Tour Ending Soon

June 21, 2012 by

We’re nearly at the end of our Spring/Summer UK tour of Avon Calling, with just one more city remaining. We’ll be in Cardiff with the
Wales Millenium Centre as part of their Blysh Festival from 6-8 July 2012.
Unusually, on the Sunday they are selling tickets to individuals for shows that they are hosting themselves, so you could still see it even if you don’t live in Cardiff yourself or can’t get a gang together.

Filming Avon Calling – would you like to star as an audience member in our film of the show?

June 20, 2011 by

    Seeking ‘Audience Members’ for film of Avon Calling

    • Are you interested in the work of The Other Way Works?
    • Do you have a background in acting?
    • Are you free this Sunday afternoon from 12-6pm (26th June)?

    Then we’d love it if you could join us as we film Avon Calling, in the starring role of one of six ‘audience members’.

    We’ve just finished a successful run of Avon Calling in association with mac Birmingham. Our next job is to create a film of the piece that we will use to promote the show to encourage future bookings.

    As you may know, Avon Calling is a show performed in audience members’ own homes, in their lounge, and takes the form of an Avon Party. Its very participatory.

    In order to properly reflect this, we need an ‘audience’ of six people to appear in our film of the piece – and this is where you come in. We have found from past experience that when it comes to filming, our audience members need to have the ability to act – you’ll need to act surprised, or amused etc even on the third or fourth take!

    It would be great if you were able to spend the afternoon with us on Sunday 26th June to be in the film. You’d also get to see most of the show, as it gets filmed. And we’ll all go out for a curry (on us) afterwards to say thanks.

    Details:
    Sunday 26 June (this Sunday)
    12pm – 6pm
    House on Stirchley/Kings Heath border, Birmingham
    Wear what you’d wear to go to a friends house for an night with friends

    If you would like to take part, please email info@theotherwayworks.co.uk ASAP.

    Many thanks in advance.

    Katie Day, Artistic Director, The Other Way Works
    www.theotherwayworks.co.uk

     

    4 Star Review for Avon Calling

    June 16, 2011 by

    We were pleased to receive a 4 Star review for Avon Calling in today’s Birmingham Mail.

    “A thought – provoking performance and a lovely evening with friends in the comfort of my own home.”

    What more could you ask for, eh?!

    We are also really pleased to have SOLD OUT the entire run in collaboration with mac.

    One-to-One theatre: discuss

    June 30, 2010 by

    I felt moved to reply to Lyn Gardner’s recent Guardian blog on the subject.  Here’s the original article, and below is my comment:

    “Interesting article Lyn.

    I think its great that this type of work is proliferating to the extent that BAC is holding a high profile festival of one-to-one performance.

    Making work for small audience numbers myself (with http://theotherwayworks.co.uk), I am frequently required to make the case not just for my own work but the form as a whole. I am often told that this work is not financially viable (which of course it isn’t in a traditional bums-on-seats model, but aren’t there other forms of value?), and people accuse us of pandering to the current obsession with individualised experience rather than critiquing it. So I’m excited to see a wider pool of theatre makers experimenting with this form, bringing their own styles to it.

    But with this proliferation comes a large diversity in the types of work marketed under the banner of ‘one-on-one’. Not a bad thing per se, but is there a danger of everyone jumping on the bandwagon just because its the buzzword of the moment? We’ve seen this with ‘site-specific’ theatre – people using the term to add excitement to what is essentially a play staged traditionally just in a building that isn’t a theatre.

    In terms of Lyn’s final points around the rules of engagement. Nailing these is the job of the theatre maker. Much like the crafting of a good story or the synthesis of design elements in a traditional production, thinking through the audience role, instructional styles and the rules of engagement are key parts of making a one-to-one theatre production. If the audience don’t understand how they are supposed to behave, then it is the responsibility of the artist to improve how they contextualise the experience for the audience (unless the artist’s express desire is to unsettle the audience for some particular reason).

    We certainly haven’t perfected this ourselves, but we do strive to learn from our experiences with audiences. We’ve discovered that to get the playful, interactive audience that we desire, we need to set them free from embarrassment and fear by providing clear guidance and plenty of reassurance and encouragement. We’ve found that far from ruining the surprises as we feared, it allows the audience to engage on a deeper level with the experience, and to get beyond ‘am I doing this right?'”

    Pilot – This Thursday

    June 30, 2009 by

    We’ll be performing our brand new performance as part of Pilot @ A.E. Harris THIS THURSDAY.  Using live sound looping to create evocative soundscapes we’ll transport you to new worlds within worlds.

    We started work on the show at 10am on Monday, and will perform it on Thursday night – guerilla site-responsive theatre!

    Come and see Toni Midlane and Vimal Korpal perform, with Mark Day on sound & music, scenography input from Xristina Penna, research by Nix Wood, and directed by Katie Day.

    Click here for more info.

    Click here for directions to the venue.

    One Week Works @A.E.Harris 2nd July

    June 14, 2009 by

    The wonderful PILOT is trying out a new home on 2nd July at Stan’s Cafe’s venue @A.E.Harris in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, and The Other Way Works will be joining them there.

    We’ll be trying out our site-specific boot-camp idea ‘One Week Works’.  Five artists will arrive on Monday, work together ‘responding to the space’, and perform what we’ve made on Thursday evening as part of the Pilot event.  As you can see, that’s not even a full week – but we’re never afraid of a challenge!

    (more…)

    Black Tonic reviewed in The Guardian

    June 13, 2008 by

    We are very pleased to have received a positive review from Lyn Gardner for The Guardian for Black Tonic. 

    Click here to read the review.

    Click here to visit the Black Tonic page

    Black Tonic

    June 10, 2008 by

    *** Black Tonic was tipped as ‘What to see this week’ by Lyn Gardner on the Guardian Blog on Friday. ***

    Performances of Black Tonic are taking place in a central London hotel, commissioned and co-produced by CPT as part of their Sprint Festival.

    Remaining dates are: Saturday 14th June; Sunday 15th June; Friday 20th June; Sunday 22nd June.

    Tickets via the CPT website at www.cptheatre.co.uk

    See the Black Tonic page for more details.

     

    Black Tonic Performances – booking now open

    June 2, 2008 by

    The first performances of Black Tonic open THIS SUNDAY in London, commissioned and co-produced by CPT in London as part of their Sprint Festival.

    Performance dates are: Sunday 8th June; Saturday 14th June; Sunday 15th June; Friday 20th June; Sunday 22nd June.

    Tickets via the CPT website at www.cptheatre.co.uk

    See the Black Tonic page for more details.

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