Industry

Roles in
Theatre
Director
A director, according to berklee.edu is a unique professional who takes charge of the production process and shapes almost every aspect of the
show. Most directors will direct work by existing writers, rather than creating their own projects, however this does occur. It’s the director’s
responsibility to help maintain and develop a creative vision that everybody agrees on. A director will also assemble their creative team and
then cast their play; one of the most crucial parts of a directors job is in fact casting. Casting when in theatre tends to be a long process and
theatre directors take their time when casting, as choosing the wrong actor for a role can end up a mess, as it is not easy to recast once it’s
been done. This means that when casting, a director has to consider how well suited a person is for their role, as well as how it will be
working with them on a personal level too. Once a director had casted, they will then collect the whole team to do a read through. A director
will try and guide this process and will make specific asks for actors to bring certain energies to their characters. After read throughs, a
director will do scene breakdowns, sometimes with just the creative team, but most always will try their best to analyse the whole text as
closely as they can with the entirety of the cast as actors can locate specifics such as obstacles and character objectives. After this, work
begins on the rehearsal floor which can very often alter the creative vision of the director, challenging it or even changing it entirely, as a
director should know how to defend a good idea they have, while also knowing when to admit fault and work with their team to fix this. A
director will then work with the actors to block the play, using a mix of the playwrights stage directions and a mix of their own notes, while
also working off of actor’s impulses. The goal for blocking is to make movements seem as natural as possible so it doesn’t look forced or
rehearsed. Then it is time for runs. Runs of the play can allow the director to see where issues are when the whole thing is performed, meaning
that they often stop-start run throughs towards the beginning of the process. They will then use these runs to make necessary changes that
strengthen the work. After this is tech week, which is an incredibly busy time for directors as their attention has to be split over multiple
departments. Directors oversee all creatives and ensure their efforts are shown in telling the story of the play and at times they may discovers
their blocking clashes with other elements of the show, meaning they have to change these. Once tech week is finished, they will move onto
previews in which directors will take lots of notes as audiences see the show for the first time.A director will use previews to either elevate or
fix the show from audience feedback. And finally, the performances start where the director can sit back and relish in their efforts.
Links: https://www.stagemilk.com/what-does-a-theatre-director-do/
https://www.berklee.edu/careers/roles/director#:~:text=Directors%20audition%20and%20cast%20actors,all
%20the%20moving%20parts%20connect.
Role: Director
Pathway:
A degree is not essential to be a director however, in order to be able to progress to the role after gaining a reputation and
experience, you may have to do some work as an actor, assistant director or stage manager before you get to this point.

A relevant degree that could help in providing some necessary skills for this role however could be
- A degree in creative and performing arts – to help gain experience on creating theatre
- A degree in drama or theatre studies – to learn what it’s like to be an actor and how to be a good director
- A degree in english literature – to learn effective techniques in writing and studying other plays

Links: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/theatre-director#qualifications
Head of Wardrobe
The head of wardrobe is responsible for the maintenance as well as preparation of all costumes in a show, and is required to
make sure the wardrobe department stays smooth running, including supervising all of the wardrobe staff. It is also their job
to make sure the designers original ideas and look of the production is maintained. The head of wardrobe has many tasks to
do throughout the making of a show, such as taking and altering costumes from the departments stock, buy/make/rent
costumes that aren’t in the companies stock, draft patterns required for costumes, oversee the construction of costumes;
overseeing alterations to all costumes being used. Throughout the running of the show it is important that they ensure all
costumes are cleaned and ready for each performance, they need to deal with emergency repairs to costumes quickly and
effectively, keep the wardrobe book up to date including references in form of photos for every cast change. And once the
show has finished they are in charge of dry cleaning, returning rented and borrowed costumes as well as returning costumes
to stock, as well as repairing any costume mishaps. Throughout the whole process of the show, the head of wardrobe is
involved in any major rehearsals and meetings and needs to coordinate their creative decisions with other departments to
make sure they’re all on the same page. They also must have extensive sewing skills and are required to be a confident and
friendly team leader, as they will be leading a big crew.

Pathway:

BA in Fine Arts, Drama, Theatre, Performing Arts or Textiles.

Lots of experience in theatre production including design and wardrobe experience

Links: https://hr.uwaterloo.ca/.jd/00001576.pdf
https://tinathemusical.com/uk/content/uploads/2022/05/Head-of-Wardrobe-Job-Description-TTM.pdf
Ushers
Ushers in theatre are a very crucial job to make an enjoyable theatre experience for an audience. They collect
admission tickets and passes, assist members of public in finding their correct seats, search for lost items and
belongings and help direct people to rest rooms, which can be confusing in big theatres. They are just huge
helping hands for people when they go and see shows and aren’t as familiarised in their environment. Ushers
also help when seating disputes occur as well as other concerns, helping to improve the environment of the
theatre before a show starts. They can also spot when people are being distracting during a show, and can give
warnings to them before having them removed from the setting if they proceed to be disrupting the show. They
don’t have a large impact when creating a show, however when a show is being performed they help massively
improve the theatre environment with a friendly nature.

Pathway:
An impressive background in education is not really needed for this role, just typical company training and
friendly attitude.

Links: https://www.careeronestop.org/Videos/careeronestop-videos.aspx?videocode
=39303100#:~:text=They%20collect%20admission%20tickets%20and,ushers
%20try%20to%20resolve%20them.
Head of Marketing
The job of somebody as a head of marketing in theatre is to make people aware of your theatre and the shows that it has on to
draw attention to the theatre. This includes creating social media content, adverts for online, website updates, leaflets and posters
and artwork. As a head of marketing it’s important to make plans for how to best promote upcoming shows to gain traction, create
a calendar of content to be uploaded to social media and explaining to your team how this should be done, arranging photo shoots
with the cast and filming behind the scenes snippets to build anticipation for a show, setting budgets for advertising and social
media campaigning (a marketing campaign is an organised plan which includes everything that is planned in order to encourage
customers to buy tickets for a production, such as posters on trains and billboards in bigger cities, because they can be seen by
many people. Bigger shows also sometimes make tv appearances). As the head of marketing it is also their job to support the rest
of their team in day to day marketing activities, like getting contact information for them or making sure their deadlines are hit. It
is also important for them to speak to the directors and producers to get a better grasp on deadlines and what they would like done
for show promotion.

Pathway

To become a head marketer you could do a degree in marketing, however many people just begin in junior positions within a
marketing team and work their way up as they gain more experience. You could also do degrees in business studies and
management to further increase knowledge on what needs to be done to get attention

Links: https://www.firstcareers.co.uk
/careers/what-does-a-head-of-theatre-marketing-do/#:~:text=What%20do%20they%20do%3F,creating
%20content%20for%20social%20media.
Role I’m interested in
I think I personally would be interested in exploring being a director because I could
potentially direct one show, and then act in another which are both things I love to do. I also
did some directing for another group in scratch and that was really fulfilling when I watched
scratch and saw my ideas put in place and to see the audiences reaction to it. To reach this
career I could go down the pathway of doing my course I’m doing at BTA at the minute which
is a Level 3 Performing Arts course, and then I could go to university after and pursue a
performing arts course, and then gain experience from doing jobs and working my way up to
get to the jobs I want to work at.