POSITION TITLE: Costume Director
REPORTS TO: Director of Production
WORK SCHEDULE: Full time, some evenings and weekends required.
WORK LOCATION: Boyle Heights, Downtown Los Angles, and Culver City, and remotely
STATUS: Exempt
COMPENSATION: Salaried. Starting at $ 1,490.39 weekly, equivalent to $77,500.28 annualized.
BENEFIT STATUS: Eligible
DEPARTMENT: Production
ABOUT THE COMPANY
At Center Theatre Group, we believe theatre creates an extraordinary connection between artists and audiences. As one of the nation’s most influential non-profit theatre companies, we provide the country’s broadest range of theatrical entertainment at the Ahmanson Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Whether it’s producing new work through our robust artistic development programs or engaging people of all ages and backgrounds across Los Angeles through our community and education programs, we put theatre at the center of it all.
Center Theatre Group commits to creating a safe space where the values of diversity, equity, access, and inclusion are rooted in all levels and aspects of our work. We aim to attract, nurture and retain staff in a supportive home where we can be our best selves. We celebrate our commonalities and embrace our differences to ensure that everyone has access to our work onstage, behind the scenes, and in the community.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Costume Director serves as the head of Center Theatre Group’s Costume Department, providing leadership and supervision of the costume team made up of full time staff and overhires. The Costume Director is responsible for supporting the artistic vision of the director and designers as it relates to planning, budgeting, and managing costume elements and personnel for productions and artistic programming. Based on the production needs, the Costume Director will create and execute a plan to realize the costume design collaboratively and creatively, ensuring all costumes, crafts, and wigs are completed in a timely and fiscally responsible fashion.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Organize and oversee the costume department, including scheduling, follow-through on design deadlines, and coordinating and supervising the build process and maintenance of all costumes for each production.
• Guide costume designers through the entire production process from initial design conversations and research through the rehearsal, tech, and preview process, making suggestions and sharing ideas to solve problems, improve the product, and facilitate changes.
• Work with the creative team and Production Management to manage and maximize the artistic impact of financial resources by evaluating costume designs and creating costume plots to determine show needs and cost estimates for materials, labor, rentals, and outsourcing.
• Supervise and manage assigned budgets for costume materials and labor. Keep all financial records up to date, discuss with Production Management any possible overages, and ensure each production’s needs are met and executed within the budgetary parameters while maintaining high standards.
• Attend all technical rehearsals and preview performances as required by Production Management.
• Acts as the liaison between Stage Management and Costume stakeholders including scheduling fittings, responding to rehearsal requests, and following through on production notes.
• Maintain and promote a safe work environment by following and enforcing all safety regulations, providing safety equipment, training employees on safe practices, reporting incidents, managing record keeping, staying up to date on safety issues and advising on safety related policy and decisions.
• Oversee the fitting process with tact, discretion, and diplomacy ensuring performers feel supported and safe.
• Hire, train and orient costume staff and designers to costume shop procedures and protocols.
• Foster the development of the costume team with formal reviews, periodic feedback, and training opportunities. Encourage the use of paid time off and ensure the department has the appropriate amount of staff to ensure a healthy work-life balance.
• Collaborate with all staff in the furtherance of Center Theatre Group’s goal of being an anti-racist theatre working towards Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for all. Encourage and empower everyone to speak out against racist workplace practices and policies. Participate in organization-wide anti-racism work and incorporate an anti-racist lens into daily practice.
• Support the Education and Community Partnerships, Institutional Advancement and Marketing departments in furthering their work. This could include teaching workshops, leading tours, discussing behind the scenes activities, or taking on interns or apprentices.
Center Theatre Group provides a dynamic working environment in which duties and responsibilities may change. Employees are expected to be flexible and responsive to changes in the scope of their duties.
QUALIFICATIONS
• Ability to communicate and collaborate with people that are mixed across lines of differences such as race, gender-identity, sexual orientation, religion, ability, age, class, and immigrant status.
• Demonstrated leadership and management skills and experience working with costume designers, actors, directors, and run crews.
• Ability to work independently, exercising judgment and discretion, while demonstrating initiative in the performance of all job duties allowing employees to work on their own and make decisions.
• Understanding of the production process from both a creative and technical viewpoint to negotiate a clear path to success for any given production. Ability to read and interpret research and drawings.
• Knowledge of costume history, period styles, garment construction, fabrics, textile techniques, and cleaning processes.
• Experience with budgets and expense tracking and ability to accurately estimate production costs and create and maintain budgets.
• Ability to remain centered and respectful during sensitive situations, guiding teams to consensus in a holistic manner.
• Aptitude and eagerness to learn new skills and processes necessary to manage varying projects.
• Comfort using computers and general knowledge of basic computer programs (email, word processing, etc.).
• With advanced notice, ability to work a flexible schedule including morning, evening, and weekend hours.
COMPENSATION
CTG offers a comprehensive compensation and benefits package including retirement plan options, escalating paid vacation, sick, personal days and holidays and health benefits including medical, dental, vision, life and long-term disability insurance, flexible spending accounts, and employee assistance program.
All employees are required to pass a background check.
It is CTG’s intention to have a workforce which is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. New employees will be required to provide proof of full vaccination prior to the first date of employment.
HOW TO APPLY
Tell us why you are the ideal person for this job.
Please send your resume and cover letter to jhamlin@ctgla.org. Please be sure to include the position title in the subject line of the email. Due to the heavy volume of resumes received, emails that do not have the job title in the email’s subject line may not be considered. Please indicate how you became aware of this position in the cover letter, e.g., name of the website, current employee, other sources.
No phone calls, please. We will contact qualified individuals to set up interviews.
Center Theatre Group is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any applicant on the basis of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, color, ancestry, disability, age, national origin, pregnancy, veteran/military status, genetic information or any other basis prohibited by law. CTG will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. We support, promote, and embrace a diverse workforce.
Type: Full-time.
To apply, please e-mail your resume to jhamlin@ctgla.org .