Participation trainee

Closing date for applications: Sunday 29th September at 11.59pm

Duration: 12 months

Core hours: 10am-6pm, 1hr for lunch

Salary: £25,643

Start date: November 2024

No previous experience of working in theatre is required for this traineeship opportunity with the Donmar Warehouse, where you'll learn more about widening arts participation and how a theatre operates.

The Donmar Warehouse makes unmissable, exceptional productions of classic plays, new works by leading writers, and intimate musicals to thrill and inspire its audiences. In a converted Covent Garden warehouse space, in the heart of London’s West End, audiences experience the power of live performance up close, sitting no more than four rows away from the action. The Donmar has blazed a trail for thirty years creating legendary performances by some of the world’s greatest artists, reaching global audiences through transfers across the West End, Broadway and beyond, and that legacy is the foundation of its approach today.

As participation trainee, you will have the opportunity to gain skills and knowledge of the theatre industry through working as part of the team that delivers the Donmar’s schools and community work. You will work across all of the participation projects, supporting administration and operations, and working closely with schools, community organisations and freelance theatre-makers. Donmar Warehouse will support you in developing your personal professional development plan during the role, offer external mentoring and networking opportunities, and support with mentorship beyond the 12-month post.

CATALYST supports the development of talent both on and offstage which is underrepresented both at the Donmar and in the wider industry. Through this talent development programme, the organisation creates bespoke experiences for roles/individuals within the organisation, welcoming a range of voices and skills to the Donmar.

“I’ll leave the Donmar feeling better prepared and excited about pursuing a career in the creative industries. This traineeship has been a great learning opportunity; I’ve gained a greater awareness and appreciation of the work that goes into making theatre. Working at the Donmar has improved my confidence greatly.”

– Previous Donmar Warehouse trainee.

Key activities

Months 1-3

• Supporting with administration and delivery of schools and community projects
• Setting up meetings, co-ordinating refreshments and cleaning up afterwards
• Maintaining and updating the Donmar’s school and community database
• Keeping an up-to-date departmental schedule of all activity
• Accurately minuting meetings and sharing action points, when required
• Logging Equal Opportunities data for project participants and freelance practitioners
• Looking after project participants in line with the Donmar’s Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy
• Responding to queries in the departmental inbox

Months 4-6

• Being a key point of contact for teachers and group leaders on projects
• Working with Ticketing and Customer Experience teams to organise tickets and facilitate visits to the theatre
• Managing the departmental email accounts
• Supporting the Participation Manager with finance tasks

Months 7-9

• Collating project material, documentation and creating content ideas for the Marketing team to share on social media and newsletters
• Updating website copy for Participation projects
• Contributing to the creative planning of LOCAL Performance Programme schools workshops

Months 10-12

• As part of the Trainee's professional development, the Trainee will be offered opportunities to take leadership of certain project areas

What you will learn

• Communication in a range of contexts, including schools, young people’s workshops and professional settings
• Written communication: copywriting and writing for web content.
• Collaboration with artists, theatre makers and departmental colleagues
• Problem-solving
• Understanding of financial processes
• Microsoft and Google Office/computer literacy
• Database management and data analysis.

Knowledge, skills and experience

Essential

• A desire to pursue a career in the arts
• An interest in working with school and community participants
• Eager to learn and develop new skills
• Experience of working in an office context, either as a volunteer, work experience or employee
• Ability to use initiative and work as part of a busy team
• Ability to manage your own workload and meet deadlines with attention to detail
• Attention to detail in all work, with excellent administration and organisational skills
• Good at working in a team
• Good communication and good at getting along with a variety of people
• Willingness to work outside of normal office hours on a regular basis (time off will be given to make up for any out of hours work)
• Good computer literacy: word processing; spreadsheets; databases; internet and email.

To apply

• Log in to your Creative Access account or register today to apply for this opportunity
• Upload your CV and cover letter as one document (applications without a tailored cover letter will not be accepted)
• Once submitted, you can no longer amend your application, so proof-read carefully
• Do not contact the company directly
• Please email any queries about this role to Creative Access at this address: recruit@creativeaccess.org.uk

This opportunity is only open to Black, Asian and ethnically diverse candidates, who are under-represented in the industry and workforce.

The successful candidate for this opportunity will also participate in a Creative Access support programme that sits alongside workplace training. This includes a programme of induction training, monthly masterclasses, wellbeing support, buddying / mentoring and more.