Trainee Assistant Director - YV Unpacked: I Wonder If… devised by the company

Trainee Assistant Director

YV Unpacked: I Wonder If… devised by the company

Directed by Daniel Bailey

 

12 September – 29 October 2022

 

Interviews will begin on Wednesday 20th. 

 

The Young Vic’s Trainee Assistant Director scheme provides an opportunity for a director or theatre maker to gain experience working on a Young Vic show.  The director or theatre maker should be at an early stage of their development and have limited experience of professional rehearsal rooms but be able to demonstrate a commitment to directing or theatre making.

 

The opportunity will provide the Trainee Assistant Director with experience of the full process of creating a show.  From work with actors in the rehearsal room, to work with the creative team as the shows moves into technical rehearsals to the performances in front of an audience. They will have the opportunity to gain first-hand experience in a supported environment working alongside a director on a professional production. 

 

We hope that this experience will give the trainee the where-with-all to apply for further assistant director roles, either at the Young Vic or elsewhere, with confidence and with an informed understanding of the skills and expertise they need to demonstrate to a company or director.

 

At present we are looking for a Trainee Assistant Director to work on YV Unpacked: I Wonder If… devised by the company directed by Daniel Bailey.

Following the success of three YV Unpacked tours–which saw professionally performed productions of Spring Awakening, She Ventures and He Wins and Love Reign performed in community venues in Lambeth and Southwark including prisons, schools, care homes, homeless shelters and rehabilitation centres – Taking Part will tour I Wonder If…  to similar locations in local boroughs where theatre is not usually performed. YV Unpacked was established in 2018 by Kwame Kwei-Armah when he became the Young Vic Artistic Director, developed with the intention of reaching audiences who may find it more difficult to access theatre by taking professional work to them.

This year marks the first time the department has toured a devised piece of work as part of YV Unpacked, making work for new audiences that puts them at the centre. I Wonder if…, devised by the company and directed by Daniel Bailey.

 

Enter our playground of infinite possibilities, exploring human connection through an array of stories which collide, evoke thought and potentially shifts perspectives. I Wonder If… unlocks the imagination of our minds and questions are these encounters fate or chance?  A mischievous force interrupts the tempo and dictates the narrative. 

 

As the story unfolds, the connections become stronger, and the audience become more integral to upholding the truth. What happens when you are able to see both sides of a story? What do we seek as humans and what happens to always find us? 

A tale of desire and shared moments that become a visceral experience through movement, dialogue, and sound. 

 

The Project runs from 12 September to 29 October and key dates include:

 

12 September             Rehearsals at the Young Vic (full time)

 

3 – 7 October              Technical rehearsals at the Young Vic (full time)

 

10 – 21 October          Performances on tour to 10 community venues in Lambeth and Southwark (part time)

 

24 – 29 October          Performances at the Young Vic in the Maria Theatre (part time)

 

You will be needed for the four-week rehearsal period full time. Once the tour begins the role will become part time based on the tour schedule. You will not be needed every day when the show is performing at the Young Vic.  

 

When on tour and at the Young Vic you may need to be available for performances both in the day and evening depending on the performance schedule.    

 

Role

The role will provide support to the director in the YV Unpacked: I Wonder If … rehearsals and performances.  This might include research, collating notes on script changes, line runs with actors, organisational and administrative support.

 

Fee: £2,500

 

Who this is for?

We accept that it is hard for all directors to secure paid assisting work and we aim to provide opportunities on all our shows through a variety of schemes and programmes. This scheme is particularly aimed at new directors who have had limited access to making work or assisting.

 

We are particularly keen to hear from directors and theatre makers who are Black or Global Majority; are from working, benefit, or criminal background; are Deaf, disabled or neurodivergent.

 

We are looking for a director or theatre maker who has the following experience.

 

Essential

• Have less than two years’ experience of working professionally* in theatre as a director but can demonstrate a commitment to a career as a theatre director
• Interest in collaborative process 
• Interests in devised work and practice
• interest in participation and community audiences/projects 
• Have not assisted at a theatre equivalent to the scale and reputation of the Young Vic 
• Have not studied to MA level or above in a theatre related subject
• Hold a current DBS certificate or be willing to be DBS checked
• You are resident in the UK at point of application

 

* We would define professional, as: making work with a cast and creative team who have or hope to have theatre as their main career focus and source of income. It does not include shows made at university or whilst training at drama school.

Desirable

• Have seen work at the Young Vic
• Have knowledge of, or interest in use of live music in theatre
• Interest in working with music and stories 

 

You do not have to be a member of the Young Vic’s Genesis Network for directors and theatre makers but we would encourage you to join so you can continue to find out about events, workshops and opportunities.   You can sign up HERE

 

To apply please send a CV and either a letter, audio or video note covering:

• Up to 200 words (or one minute) on three things you would specifically like to learn from assisting on this production
• Up to 200 words (or one minute) on either; what have you watched in theatre, film or TV that incorporated movement in a impactful way? How did it make you feel and why?

 

Audio and video applications should be submitted via WeTransfer.

Please also complete the Equal Opportunities form* and the Access Rider which are linked below, or provide your own.

* Filling in the Equal Opportunities Monitoring form will help us to be as representative as possible, in the makeup of our creative teams. Our aim is to embrace diversity, ambition and excellence. To achieve this, it is useful for us to know a certain amount about who you are. 

Please confirm that you are free for a majority of the dates outlined above. We will work with the appointed trainee director to create a schedule that works with their interests and other commitments.  If you know you have any prior commitments during the rehearsal period outlined above, please let us know and we will try to accommodate these as much as we can. 

 

Please email your application to Sue Emmas, Associate Artistic Director of the Young Vic at Opportunitiescreatorsprogram@youngvic.org

 

Deadlines for applications is noon 19 July 2022

 

Please add your name, telephone number and email address to every page you submit.

We will meet everyone that makes an application, and these short 15 minute interviews will take place on Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 July. You will meet Sue Emmas (Associate Artistic Director) and Alisha Artry (Neighbourhood Theatre Producer).

We will then invite shortlisted directors to meet with Daniel Bailey the director on Wednesday 27 July

We will get back in touch with everyone who applies but please bear with us as this make take some time. If your availability changes, please contact Ellis ellis@youngvic.org so we can withdraw your expression of interest.