Community manager

Department/Team: Education and Community

Responsible to: Education and Community Director

Contract: Permanent

Location: Mix of home working and from The Old Vic, 103 The Cut, London, SE1 8NB (min 3 office days to include Monday and Tuesday)

Hours: Full-Time, usual working hours are Monday–Friday, 9.30am–5.30pm with some out of hours work (e.g. evenings and weekends)

Develop and oversee community theatre projects at The Old Vic, building strong relationships with participants and local organisations.

For over 200 years, The Old Vic has been at the centre of its civic, creative and cultural community: London’s local theatre with global impact, reaching audiences of 350k+ every year with over 60% of those visiting for the first time. As a theatre operating independently as a registered charity, The Old Vic’s identity is built around its wider societal contribution and our mission to make The Old Vic accessible.

Your Team

The Education & Community department is led by the Education & Community Director and also includes the Head of Education and Community, three Education Managers, the Participation Manager, the Participation Coordinator, the Education & Community Coordinator and the Education and Community intern. This team is supported by a network of Education Associates and freelance artists.

Areas of responsibility

As Community Manager, you will project manage, develop and oversee The Old Vic’s community projects including Theatre Club, Community Choir, OV Community Network and collaborate on the delivery of our intergenerational project 12 Choirs. You will also work alongside the Education and Community Director to develop future strategic community engagement activity, taking advantage of the opportunities presented in our new Backstage Building. You will work closely with the Education and Community Coordinator on the delivery of the projects.

These projects will serve particular strategic objectives as defined in The Old Vic Business Plan. You will also contribute to organisation-wide initiatives from an Education and Community perspective.

Programme Content

• To project manage, develop and oversee key Old Vic Community projects including Theatre Club, Community Choir, ensuring that they meet objectives, reviewing this regularly and ensuring projects are kept to budget and evaluated thoroughly
• To collaborate with the Education Manager on the development and delivery of 12 Choirs, taking responsibility for community groups engagement
• To support the Education and Community Coordinator in the delivery of the OV Community Network and wider community projects as required
• To support the creation and delivery of workshop content in collaboration with facilitators
• To support the Education and Community Director in the delivery and development of the community strategy including supporting on consultations and evaluation
• To recruit, maintain and develop strong relationships with participants for Community projects
• To maintain strong relationships with all stakeholders from participants to supporters to professionals involved in the department’s activities
• To research, develop and maintain strategic links with local community organisations developing referral routes for participants
• To contribute to the development and content of wider Education and Community initiatives

Operational Activity

• To manage freelance artists and facilitators working on community programmes
• To act as a point of contact for community participants
• To update and maintain our database of community organisations
• To work closely with the marketing team to create marketing material for our projects, in line with Old Vic branding guidelines
• To support annual reporting through provision of data and interpreted evaluation reports
• To support the Development department by providing data for reporting purposes and ensuring supporters’ needs are met, and information is available in a timely and appropriate fashion
• To maintain an awareness of best practice in community arts participation settings
  

Company-wide Activity

• To attend Development events as requested
• To contribute to regular all staff meetings, sharing information and connecting staff with activity across our projects
• To represent The Old Vic at various events and ensure its reputation is maintained
  

This is not an exhaustive list of duties and the Theatre's management may, at any time, allocate other tasks which are of a similar nature or level.

Person Specification

Essential

• Significant experience of facilitating, and delivering high-quality community theatre project or similar
• Significant experience in the design and delivery of large-scale community theatre projects or similar
• Excellent organisational and project management skills
• Experience of working with people from diverse backgrounds
• Proven line management experience
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Budgetary management experience of up to £50K - £100K
• Acute attention to detail
• Robust understanding of best practice and new developments within a community arts context
• Experience of evaluation design, analysis and reporting and experience of writing copy for content and marketing materials
• Experience of working within a theatre building or arts organisation

First conversations are likely to take place w/c 12 October 2026.

We welcome and encourage applications from candidates who are under-represented in the creative industries.

Please make sure that you state in your application that you found this role via Creative Access.