Job Details
Position Overview:
1. All OSF employees are expected to respect diverse ideas, races, genders, sexualities, abilities, cultures, and religions, and contribute to working in an anti-racist theatre committed to the values of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA).
2. The Director of Literary Development oversees all activities pertaining to the texts of plays in our language-based theater, firmly rooted in OSF's mission-based commitment to inclusion. Supports the Artistic Director in the area of play selection. Oversees dramaturgical support for all productions. Collaborates with the Artistic Director on selection of commissioning programs and oversees all new play commissions. Produces workshops and select readings for the public. Serves as member of senior artistic staff.
Pay range: $110,000-120,000
We highly encourage you to attach a cover letter elaborating on your interest in this position and detailing the unique qualities and experiences you bring to contribute to its success.
Organizational Background
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) was founded in 1935 in Ashland, OR, and has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a nationally renowned theatre arts organization that presents a rotating repertory season of up to 10 plays and musicals, including illuminating interpretations of Shakespeare, other enduring classics, and new works. OSF productions have been presented on Broadway, internationally, and at regional, community, and high school theatres across the country. OSF received the 1983 Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and is one of the largest nonprofit theatres in the nation with three stages, including an outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre.
Statement of Purpose
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival creates world-class theatre, revealing our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, and inspiring a love of our art form for current and future generations.
Company Values
- We are committed to working toward inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility, creating a space of belonging for all audiences and employees-through concrete actions and systemic improvements.
- We nurture and support our artists, attracting and retaining diverse, innovative talent across the organization.
- We believe in the transformational power of collaborative artmaking and performance.
- We recognize the importance of responsible stewardship of resources and sustainable business, financial, and environmental practices.
- We serve the public good and engage with and respect our community of artists, audiences, staff, local citizens, patrons, donors, and the greater theatre community worldwide.
Principal Duties and Responsibilities:
- Supports the Artistic Director in the area of play selection by reading, researching, recommending individual scripts and season slates, and overseeing annual season-selection process.
- Manages literary budget and staff and assigns appropriate dramaturgs to each production. Develops relationships with playwrights and playwright organizations.
- Commissions and develops new plays and musicals, as well as translations and adaptations of plays and non-dramatic literature, leads artistic staff in considering a thoughtful, holistic approach to play commissions across all commissioning programs; and collaborates with Associate Artistic Director and Director of Repertory Producing in guiding playwrights through the development and production process to hand off new plays from development into production pipeline.
- Produces and casts workshops for new work, public readings, including but not limited to the Phil Killian Directing Fellowship Reading; and in-house readings of all commissioned plays and other projects of interest for future production, and the pipeline of productions already announced to be produced at OSF.
- Supervises in-house publications and exhibits, included but not limited to, in-house published play scripts.
- Embraces the Festival's commitment to IDEA engaging in the diversification of the workforce; and demonstrating a degree of cultural competency that enhances relationships with all company members; particularly those belonging to groups of diverse backgrounds, including but not limited to, race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, language, ability, age and socioeconomic status.
Other Duties and Responsibilities:
- Serves as production dramaturg on occasional productions.
- Contributes to ongoing exploration of increased humanities-based programming and maintains a high-level of awareness of current and emerging playwrights.
- Collaborates with other OSF departments - including, but not limited to, Education & Engagement, Development, Membership, and Marketing - and our cohort of volunteers to provide materials, context and inspiration to support programming.
- Supports FAIR program and mentors individual interns.
- Works with Manager of Contracting and Procurement on contracts for dramaturgs and commissioned playwrights.
- Serves as or assigns OSF liaison for Shakespeare Theatre Association, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and other field-wide service organizations.
- Maintains contact with other play development programs nationally, and when possible, attends play development workshops, readings, and conferences, especially those that contribute to OSF's overall inclusion goals.
- Coordinates literary-based classes for OSF Company.
- Completes other duties as assigned by Artistic Director.
Supervision Received: Supervised by Artistic Director
Supervision Exercised: Supervises Literary Manager, FAIR Dramaturgs, Guest Dramaturgs
Qualifications & Skills:
REQUIRED:
Education: MA or MFA degree in Dramatic Literature, Dramaturgy, or related field, or commensurate experience.
Work Experience: At least 3 years of working experiences in Professional Theatre as staff position. Background in Dramaturgy or Literary Management, including detailed knowledge of theatre practices and dramatic literature.
Physical Ability: Work is performed in a variety of environments, including standard office settings, rehearsal spaces, and theatre backstage areas and auditoriums.
Other Skills, Knowledge, and Ability: Be a strong self-motivator adept at working autonomously with a high degree of independent judgment and discretion; high awareness of a wide-variety of texts from Shakespeare to global classics to contemporary American; cultural competence and, ideally, fluency in equity, diversity and inclusion work; demonstrated experience working with playwrights of color or demonstrated experience working in multicultural settings, including successful development of culturally-specific projects; high level of writing, proofreading and editing skills; sense of humor, strong organizational skills, and meticulous attention to detail and follow-through.
Special Hours Requirements: Travel is required on a project-by-project basis. Flexible schedule includes evening and weekends hours.
PREFERRED: Reading and writing fluency in a second language; experience and, ideally, fluency in digital communications including digital dramaturgy.
We highly encourage you to attach a cover letter elaborating on your interest in this position and detailing the unique qualities and experiences you bring to contribute to its success.