October 7, 2016 by katie
The Other Way Works is currently recruiting Trustees to join its Board of Directors. This is a great opportunity for your skills and experience to make a real difference to the development of an energetic and distinctive charitable arts organisation. We’re looking for people with a passion for theatre, the arts, and innovation, who will help steer, support and advocate for the company.
July 17, 2015 by katie
I was asked to give a presentation about how to run a successful crowdfunding campaign recently, and thought it would be a good opportunity to share some of the learning I’d accumulated through running our Black Tonic 2015 campaign earlier this year, and the research I did that fed into the campaign.
I thought I’d share a PDF of the slides here, so others could take a look too.
June 3, 2015 by katie
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.
May 24, 2011 by katie
I’ve just received my accreditation, and am now very happy to be an Accredited Action Learning Facilitator.
I experienced Action Learning as a ‘set’ member whilst I was undertaking my Cultural Leadership Programme Placement last year. This led me to apply for and be accepted onto the Action Learning and Leadership Facilitation Skills course run by the Action Learning Associates and the Cultural Leadership Programme early this year.
I’m really interested in using the skills I’ve gained to support my current facilitation roles, and also find opportunities to use them in a ‘pure’ Action Learning context. The Action Learning Associates Website has some useful info about what Action Learning is, if you’d like to find out more about it.
Katie Day, Artistic Director
August 11, 2010 by katie
A new super shiny Annual Report is now available for you to download. Packed with photos and pithy updates from the year just gone. Happy browsing.
Click here to see all previous Annual Reports.
December 15, 2009 by katie
The Other Way Works is pleased to announce a new development with long-lasting positive consequences for the career of our Artistic Director, Katie Day and for the future growth of the Company.
August 18, 2009 by katie
Our 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 Annual Reports are now online and available to download. They’re pretty light on text, and packed with tasty images, mostly courtesy of award-winning photographer Chris Keenan one of our associate artists.
Visit this page to find and download them.
(http://www.theotherwayworks.co.uk/about/annualreports)
Enjoy.
Creating a Kickstarter Campaign – by Seb Harding
September 1, 2015 by Seb Harding
It’s been just over a month since we made our crowdfunding target for the 2015 tour of Black Tonic and since then we’ve had a bit of time to reflect on the successes of the campaign and consider what we’d change if we could do it all again. Overall the process has been complex, but ultimately, very rewarding.
We thought we’d share our experience by creating a quick four step run down of the factors we found most important in creating our campaign.
Doing the Groundwork
Many of the companies and individuals we spoke to whilst researching the campaign warned of the perils of beginning a hastily planned fundraiser.
We began seriously planning our campaign in November therefore giving ourselves around four months in which to develop a series of rewards, create a quirky campaign video, plan a marketing campaign (with video and written content) and organise a low key launch event.
Regardless to say we were of course working on all of this right up until we launched the campaign. It’s definitely possible to produce a campaign in a much shorter amount of time, and our obsessive attention to detail probably doesn’t help, but we can’t stress enough how many hours go into creating a slick successful fundraiser.
Make sure you have budgeted for everything!
We’re pretty sure someone is reading this and thinking “Surely a Crowdfunder is about raising money, not losing it” but the reality can be quite a very different picture.
To begin with, lets consider the rewards. Admittedly you won’t have to physically create anything before you make your target but once you do you’re effectively tied down to deliver all you’ve promised. The reality of how much you may have to spend (don’t forget person hours) could take a large chunk from the amount you raise if you have failed to factor in all the costs.
As our production of Black Tonic has relatively small numbers of audience members we couldn’t just give tickets away in the lowest, and most popular, tiers. This meant we had to devise attractive rewards that linked to the show but could also stand alone as attractive offers to any indecisive backers.
If, on the other hand, most of your rewards are a direct result of the project you’re fundraising then you may think it’s a relatively simple affair. Though don’t forget if, for instance, you give away 50% of tickets to your show but are also relying on high ticket revenue you could end up losing money overall.
Don’t underestimate how much content you will create for Social Media
Before you begin any plans for marketing your campaign it’s worth bearing in mind that your audience will possibly have to come into contact with your project at least three times before they actually part with their money. The sheer amount of Social Media content that successful campaigns have to create is pretty much uncontested but the route you take to present your message can be incredibly inventive. For our campaign we created content such as Video endorsements, behind the scenes videos plus an in depth blog on the research process behind the production we were trying to fund.
See it as a project in itself and enjoy it!
The process of creating a crowdfunding campaign is very similar to that of creating any small public facing project. Therefore it is important to see the campaign as an extension of your creative output and not separate to it. If you can think creatively about the project video, campaign visuals and backer rewards your audiences are far more likely to get on board. Try to invest as much personal interest in the campaign and the whole process will hopefully become both more attainable and enjoyable.
There’s so much we could write about concerning our crowdfunding experience but we’ll stop before we bore you! Hopefully these tips might come in use if you’re thinking about creating your own fundraiser, and if so, we’d love to hear from you.
If you haven’t done so already why not follow us on Twitter or like our Facebook page.