Artist for Change Roles Supporting Information Pack The Artists for Change programme is supported by the Jerwood Developing Artists Fund and will employ two early-career artists to challenge our conventional thinking around inclusivity and the climate emergency. These two new positions will develop creative solutions for the theatre and for audiences that make effective change possible for us and our communities. Page 2 Hello! I'm delighted you're curious about one of our new Artist for Change roles at TRP. After months of detailed planning, listening, sector consultation and internal reorganisation we now need to find a fantastic team of artists to join our leadership team to help us deliver the creative success we can see ahead of us. I'm one year into post and so in many ways I still feel very new, and so, I can assure you, that TRP is full of exceptional and talented people. We have loyal audiences but also significant space to grow to matter more to more people. We have two extraordinary buildings. In the city centre everything is within easy reach from TRP and a couple of miles down the road, at TR2, your office will look out on the sea. Our city is creatively bold and ambitious. The Box, our new museum, gallery and archives opened in 2020 after a £47m capital project. Plymouth makes things happen and there are brilliant things planned for the years ahead. This pack, and the job descriptions, are full of information about us, and the role, but whatever we have missed, whatever is playing on your mind, or if you want a confidential chat with me drop the team an email to: recruitment@theatreroyal.com and we'll find a time. As we head into the future we're going to be brave, creatively ambitious and we're going to hold our vulnerabilities openly and carefully. If you can help us do this by making new work, reviving the old, if you can dream-up wonderful projects, if you can collaborate and if you are excited by our new approach to creative leadership I encourage you to apply. James Mackenzie-Blackman CEO & Executive Producer Page 3 Our Vision To be special for everyone: inspiring a lifetime of creativity for our audiences, artists and participants, creating memorable experiences for all and being the principal home of the performing arts in the South West. Our Mission To develop and deepen people's engagement with pioneering creativity in Plymouth and the South West, delivering experiences that spark delight, expression and fulfilment. Our Values Creativity, collaboration, quality and diversity. Being imaginative in everything we do. Valuing each other in the way we work. Taking pride in achieving excellence and embracing the diversity among our people and community. Page 4 Creative Renewal Programme Our new strategy will see us working across these eight strands of creativity. In early 2022 TRP commissioned six industry professionals to lead an independent review into TRP's creative leadership. You can read more about the process we went through, and read the Key Findings document. TRP has adopted all the key recommendations of the report. In January 2023 Liz King was announced as TRP's new Executive Director, Producing and Programming. Liz will manage the producing and programming of all creative projects and productions at TRP. Liz will be supported by a highly-skilled team of four leadership team members: Head of Production; Head of Technical and Wardrobe; Head of Artistic Planning, Stages & our Head of Artistic Planning; Projects. The final stage of our reorganisation is to appoint additional artists to our leadership team to make-up the Creative Team that will creatively lead TRP in the years ahead. Page 5 Collaborative Producing & Programming Theatre Royal Plymouth has a newly established 'Producing & Programming Group'. The group meet every other week. All of our new Associate Director roles will be members of this group. They will lead the meeting for their artform area. Once a month we focus the meeting on all aspects of our confirmed programme including visiting productions from other producers, our co-productions and our own TRP productions and projects. On the alternate meeting we focus on all incoming enquiry from artists and companies, future programming and producing opportunities, feedback on work seen in other venues and meetings with artists. The team collaborate on decision-making regarding; the balance of the programme across our three-stages and in the community; and how TRP invests its financial resources on artistic ideas and collaboration. Who We Are Looking For We're looking for practicing artists, or creative producers, who have experience of making professional work with building-based performing arts organisations or non-building based companies. We're looking for people committed to working with us in a collaborative approach to making artistic and programming decisions. We want to hear from people who recognise the unique and privileged assets we have in our two buildings: the Theatre Royal and TR2. We want to hear from people who want to build experience working in a large-scale building-based theatre. We don't think we're looking for someone who is ready to run a large-scale venue. A success-measure for us will be that in five years time someone from the creative team at TRP leave us to do this. We are crystal-clear that we want our new creative team to be a diverse group of individuals that bring their skills and life-experience to their role, in turn making sure we matter more to more people. Page 6 Theatre We provide theatre from most innovative and challenging to most popular. As the South West's principal centre for performing arts we present a year-round programme of world-class and distinctive productions on all scales. We present, and are ambitious to produce, a broad range of work, on all scales, in our building, and outside across our city and region. We have three performance spaces: The Lyric (1,300), The Drum (175) and The Lab (50). Page 7 Dance Theatre Royal Plymouth has presented dance for 40 years. We have long-term strategic relationships with Matthew Bourne's New Adventures, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Rambert and Dance Consortium, that presents large-scale dance from across the world. Our dance audiences are loyal and we are excited about growing and diversifying our dance programme across all our venues. Page 8 Children, Young People & Families We want to be recognised as industry leaders in how the next generation of artists and audiences are valued and recognised in creative organisations like TRP. As a registered charity we provide art, education, and community engagement throughout Plymouth and the wider region. We engage and inspire our many communities through performing arts and we touch the lives and interests of people from all backgrounds in a number of ways. Page 9 Co-Curated & Outdoor Work We're bold and ambitious to make both small intimate work and mass participation events. For over a decade TRP has worked with adults with multiple and complex needs. Our project participants come from all walks of life and may have faced challenges involving homelessness, mental health issues, re-offending, substance misuse, or isolation. Through projects like Our Space and our Funky Llama Festival we are delivering creative experiences and making work in new ways. We want this work to grow. We're committed to making more work outside of our buildings. In the years ahead we want work on our waterfront, in car parks, village halls and in unexpected places across our city and region. Page 10 Artist Development The Lab is a hotbed of developing talent from across Plymouth and the South West. Through projects like the Lab Company, IDEASLab and Lab Associates we develop, support and advocate for artists. As we move forward, we want to respond to the findings of our creative leadership report and create more space, and more resource, for local artists to grow and develop their skills supported by our Artist Development team and in collaboration with other partners locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Page 11 Scenic Development & Construction Our scenic design workshops, and design studio, at TR2 are some of the best in the country, indeed the world. Our award-winning building, on the banks of the Plym estuary, is staffed by exceptional crafts people interpreting designers' ambitions and building sets for industry leading companies including the Metropolitan Opera, Cameron Mackintosh Limited, Chichester Festival Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the years ahead we are committed to remaining at the forefront of developments in scenic design and construction, to raise the profile of this work in our organisation, and question and challenge the relationship between designers, production management, producers and scenic craftspeople with a sharp focus on sustainability and the climate emergency. Page 12 Our Reach Theatre Royal Plymouth is the UK's largest and best attended regional producing theatre. Our reach can be seen on facts, figures and the geographical reach of our bookers on the right. £16.6m turnover 91% of our income was self-generated For every £1 received from public funding, we generated £25.88 of economic impact We had over 81,000 attendances to our Engagement & Learning programme We welcomed 342,819 people through our doors for 92 productions We achieved 77% occupancy 33.5% of our audience were first time attenders 30% of our audience attended two or more times You can see more detail about TRP and its financial position in this link to our latest audited accounts here. https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/284545/accounts-and-annual-returns Page 13 Plymouth It's an exciting time in Plymouth. There is a renewed ambition and investment strategy for the sustainable development of the city's offer, with arts and culture positioned as a core pillar of the city's identity. In 2021, Plymouth Culture (the city's arts and cultural development agency) launched a new Culture Plan: an ambitious vision to put culture at the heart of Plymouth's development, supporting and creating hundreds of jobs and businesses while building a world class cultural offer. Destination Plymouth also launched a new Visitor Plan which targets the growth of visitor numbers by 15% from 5.1 to 6 million by 2030. Plymouth ranks 1st as the safest and overall 3rd best city to live and work in the UK. Over 40% of the city is designated as green space and is surrounded by 3 AONBs. Plymouth has 10 Local Nature Reserves, over 40 wildflower meadows, 9 Special Sites of Scientific Interest and 28 County Wildlife Sites with Plymouth Sound and Harbour as the country's first National Marine Park. There are up to 24 daily rail services between Plymouth and London. Exeter and Bristol International airports are located 1-2 hours away respectively and Brittany Ferries operates regular passenger services to Roscoff, France and Santander, Spain directly from Plymouth. Page 14 Our Values We are committed to our core values. Everyone is expected to deliver their job and work with colleagues bearing these values in mind. Collaboration - Valuing each other in the way we work, communicate and spend time together. We work openly and honestly together. We communicate regularly with each other, listening and making sure we understand people's needs. We value and respect the relationships we have with colleagues, artists and partners and celebrate our shared successes. Creativity - Being imaginative in everything we do. - We use our knowledge, experience and judgement to explore doing things differently. We aim to empower everybody in the organisation to adopt a flexible, open-minded and imaginative approach. Quality - Taking pride in achieving excellence - We take responsibility for and pride in what we do, recognising each other's good work. We set consistently high expectations in all we do and ensure that everyone has the skills to achieve excellence. Diversity - Embracing the diversity among our people and community. - We embrace and value difference and individuality treating everyone as equally important. Together we are stronger and more effective. The Artists for Change programme is supported by the Jerwood Developing Artists Fund and will employ two early-career artists to challenge our conventional thinking around inclusivity and the climate emergency. These two new positions will develop creative solutions for the theatre and for audiences that make effective change possible for us and our communities. End