TCG is North America’s largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature, with 21 Pulitzer Prizes for Drama on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning American Theatre magazine (now back in print!) and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts.
Since its founding in 1961, TCG’s constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to over 750 Member Theatres and Affiliate organizations and over 3,000 Individual Members. TCG reaches over one million students, audience members, and theatre professionals each year through its programs and services and offers networking and knowledge-building opportunities through research, communications, and events, including the bi-annual National Conference, one of the largest nationwide gatherings of theatre people.
A hybrid work structure, welcoming applicants living in any area of the US and working remotely for a significant portion of their time. Regular travel to New York and other parts of the United States (and potentially internationally) will be expected, with travel expenses covered in the approved annual budget.
New York, NY
United States
How We Will Support Our New Co-Executive Directors
The arrival of new leaders at TCG means everyone will need to adapt to new ways of working and a different collaborative partnership than has existed in the past. As we discover that new dynamic together, it is important that our new Co-Executive Directors feel supported and engaged from all sides of the organization.
All three Co-Executive Directors are currently slated to receive the same salary, benefits, and support structures. Future variations may be developed and recommended to the board by the Co-Executive Directors themselves as part of their duties.
TCG commits to providing:
Annual salary of $215,000 for each Co-Executive Director, with an annual cost of living increase linked to CPI.
Benefits including:
Medical/Dental/Vision
Life/Accidental Death & Personal Loss, and Disability
Short-Term and Long-Term Disability
Employee Assistance Program
Flexible Spending Account
403b Retirement Plan
Vacation/Personal & Sick Days
11 paid Holidays
Summer Fridays
A hybrid work structure, welcoming applicants living in any area of the US and working remotely for a significant portion of their time. Regular travel to New York and other parts of the United States (and potentially internationally) will be expected, with travel expenses covered in the approved annual budget.
An onboarding and transition plan, developed by the team and ready to adapt to the needs of the Co-Executive Director.
Commitments made with clear accountability from the Board of Directors around adherence to Codes of Conduct, active communications, attendance at board meetings and events, annual financial pledges, and participation in mutual annual review processes.
Mentorship or Advisory support during the first year with Creative Evolutions and industry peers (see the Search Process that follows).
How this Search will Operate – Values, Communication, and Compensation
Overall Estimated Timeline:
Preferred Application Period: July 25 - August 26, 2024
After the end of the application period, please reach out if you are still interested, and we will let you know if there is still an opportunity for consideration.
Initial Virtual Candidate Meetings: Aug 15 - September 15, 2024
In-Person Semi-Finalist Meetings: September 2024
Finalist Period with full board and staff: October 2024
Anticipated Start: November/December 2024
After an initial submission of interest (see below for instructions), selected candidates will be invited for a virtual Candidate Meeting with Calida Jones, Doug Clayton, and/or Rebecca Novick from Creative Evolutions. Following the initial meetings, a group of candidates will be advanced to a robust semi-finalist and finalist process.
The semi-finalist and finalist process will likely include:
A virtual presentation and Q&A with the full board and staff
A series of deep-dive explorations on the key areas of leadership noted in the “Roles and Structure” section. Each of these exploration meetings will be conducted by individuals with very direct expertise in the particular area. These individuals may come from the board, the staff, or be engaged outside industry peers. Any outside industry peers who participate in the evaluation process will also be engaged to be colleagues, advisors, or mentors to the Co-Executive Director team during the first year.
A physical on-site visit that includes at minimum:
Touring TCG’s offices
Meetings with staff or board in various environments
Meetings with Co-Executive Directors Emilya Cachapero and LaTeshia Ellerson
This is a lot of time, energy, and expertise to ask for semi-finalist and finalist candidates, and TCG and Creative Evolutions are providing $750 in direct compensation to each semi-finalist candidate, and $1000 in direct compensation to each finalist candidate, in addition to reimbursing expenses (transportation, housing, food) associated with any requested travel at the semi-finalist or finalist stages.
This search process is rooted in values shared by TCG and Creative Evolutions, and will include the following elements:
It is important to us that you are treated with respect and are appreciated for the value you create for TCG through your participation in this process. Candidates who do not advance will be notified promptly and given feedback on their materials or candidacy relative to the rest of the candidate pool.
Throughout the process we commit to active communication with you, so you are never wondering what is happening or where things stand with your application or the hiring process.
It is important that the full TCG team participates in the selection process. Final candidates will have the opportunity to come on site before a hiring decision is made. They will also have the opportunity to meet all Staff and Board (in-person or virtually).
How to Express Your Interest
Apply at CreativeEvolutions.com/TCG
Rebecca Novick, Calida Jones, and Douglas Clayton (Creative Evolutions)
The application portal will ask you to provide the following:
A pdf of your resume. The resume can be of any length and style, though we encourage you to adjust it as appropriate to help us see how your history and experience connect to the current circumstances, intentions, and needs of TCG. If your preferred resume already lives in an online space or platform, you are welcome to simply provide a link to those materials.
Instead of providing a standard cover letter, you will be asked to reply to the following questions: Please write out the questions and answer each one individually and distinctly. If you feel you communicate more effectively verbally, you can reach out to us and provide a link to a video of you talking through your answers to these questions as an alternative.
Who are you and what is most exciting for us to know about you as a human being? What is most exciting for us to know about you as a leader?
Please share your current awareness and perspective on TCG’s particular position, role, and opportunities in the current state of the American theatre.
In your experience, what are the most important components to supporting a successful operation that operates primarily virtually and across a national geography?
How have you approached identifying and building channels for new earned revenue?
What experience have you had working in or directly observing a co-leadership or shared-leadership structure? What do you think are the most important practical steps you would need to take with your Co-Executive Directors to be able to work together in a truly shared fashion?
TCG continues to grow its own understanding of prioritizing human beings of all kinds within its business operations. As a leader responsible for areas like finances, human resources, IT, and operational structure, how have you made decisions that are anti-oppression and that helped the team and individuals to flourish in the past?
If you wish, feel free to share how you self-identify so we can honor your preferences and perspectives in our communications with you!
If you have any questions about the position or your submission, please feel free to e-mail and we will be happy to clarify!
Rebecca@CreativeEvolutions.com
Calida@CreativeEvolutions.com
Douglas@CreativeEvolutions.com
What We Are Looking for in Our New Co-Executive Director
All three of our new Co-Executive Directors will need to hold a core belief in collaborative work, and to see themselves as supporters and connectors with the rest of the TCG team. While each will bring specific ideas, vision, and energy to their roles, they will embrace collective responsibility for TCG’s service to the field and for the care and investment in TCG’s people. They will all prioritize the ‘communications’ part of the name of the organization as an essential daily priority, both internally and externally.
For the Co-Executive Director: National Operations and Business Development, their primary super-strength will be as a brilliant systems designer for both technical and human parts of the organization. They will have a highly detail-oriented mind and the ability to make clear and efficient decisions around priorities and allocation of resources. They will be an expert planner who can also adapt to new circumstances and situations quickly and orchestrate complicated shifts in process with a diverse and largely remote team. They will also be creative in their approach, able to envision and execute on new opportunities for earned revenue at TCG. Their experience with operational and business systems will also provide the opportunity to strengthen TCG’s day-to-day, and re-invent TCG in various areas to model anti-oppressive business practices.
Human Expectations and Personal Values
We expect our Co-Executive Directors to be very different from one another, but we do expect them to unify around the present and aspirational values of the TCG team.
In a Co-Executive Director structure, where the three individuals have equal shares of power and authority in the organization, each Co-Executive Director needs an appreciation for the benefits of co-leadership and an eagerness to support one another while feeling confident and clear in their responsibilities on the team. A spirit of humility and grace to know when to lean into their perspective and when to make space for others’ expertise is the bedrock of how we hope TCG will function going forward.
They will operate from a joyful place of optimism about a better future (for tomorrow or ten years from now), while appreciating that they are responsible for one moment in a much longer story. This appreciation will mesh well with their passion for training and mentoring others. They will see their work in building TCG to include building the knowledge, relationships, confidence, and enthusiasm of members of the team (or others in the field) who will be at TCG even after their term(s) complete.
Their team orientation and emphasis on listening will allow them to design and develop better operations or opportunities for TCG, and will provide a fertile space for input and challenges to the status quo from staff, board, or other TCG constituents. They will not see these challenges as threatening, but instead as a healthy and integral part of growth and progress. Paired with this, they will remain deeply aware that holding hierarchical authority and power can lead to diminished empathy, and so they will make efforts with the other Co-Executive Directors, staff, and board, to regularly re-ground themselves in compassion, and how their actions impact the realities and vulnerabilities of the people who make up TCG and the theatre ecology.
Co-Executive Director Roles and Structures
TCG has spent extensive time discussing and exploring the structure for three Co-Executive Directors. Since two of the three Co-Executive Director's are internal promotions, the third Co-Executive Director will complement and enhance the capabilities of the existing leaders. Because TCG will be collectively led by three individuals, no single person needs to be outstanding in all areas, as long as the team of three collectively are exceptional in all the capabilities TCG needs to fulfill its purpose and support its people. While this opportunity statement includes a draft of how responsibilities will be shared at the outset, TCG anticipates that the three leaders will continue to evolve and refine their roles during the first year of their collaboration, and in an ongoing way through their entire terms of service.
The following responsibilities will be shared among all three Co-Executive Directors:
Strategy and Vision
All three Co-Executive Directors will be responsible for collaborating on a unified, cross-functional, and adaptive strategy and vision for TCG in partnership with staff and Board.
Staff Culture and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
All three Co-Executive Directors will commit collectively to following and supporting a set of core cultural behaviors for TCG as set out in TCG’s values. Together the three Co-Executive Director's will ensure that all of TCG’s communications and programming align with these values. All three should be people who have deeply examined their own biases, learned and lived anti-racist practices, and are able to both lead and learn in this area. (Note that EDI-specific programming for the field will be held as a specific programming responsibility.)
Public Engagement
All three Co-Executive Directors will be great communicators, comfortable speaking publicly as well as engaging one-on-one with TCG’s many community members. They will also be excellent listeners, able to engage deeply with TCG’s constituents by listening fully, building trust, and working to heal past harm. Specific opportunities to represent TCG at conferences and other engagements will be shared strategically among the three Co-Executive Director's as well as with other appropriate staff and board representatives.
Managing a Budget that Enacts TCG’s Values
Believing that budgets are moral documents that express an organization’s values, the three Co-Executive Directors will work together to develop an annual budget that enacts TCG’s values while reflecting fiscal realities.
The three Co-Executive Directors will also all:
Report to and participate in annual collective evaluations with each other and the board
Collaborate deeply with the Board and other staff leadership at twice yearly full-day strategy sessions, and in between as appropriate
Bring a diverse set of empowered perspectives into leadership, giving more weight and strength to TCG initiatives by removing the ‘one voice’ structure.
Embrace having great strengths in some areas, and supporting other Co-Executive Directors with strengths in other areas
Operate in a way where they can step in for one another on short-term basis when life happens
Specific responsibilities for the Co-Executive Director: National Operations and Business Development include:
Primary leadership around TCG's overall business model, including envisioning and exploring new approaches to supporting the mission of a national service organization.
Design, oversee and improve TCG systems for People & Culture/Human Resources, Information Technology, Financial Management, and general operations.
Develop approaches to understanding and illuminating organizational capacity (human, financial, temporal, and relational) to aid in prioritization and decision making.
Lead internal communications and coordination between functional areas, including between the board and staff.
Manage the annual budgeting process and oversee day-to-day finances in partnership with ArtsFMS and the other two Co-Executive Directors
Support TCG’s publishing arms (AT Magazine, TCG Books, and Advertising) jointly with the other Co-Executive Directors, with a particular orientation towards effective operations in the current environment and developing new earned revenue opportunities
Design and improve current and potential earned revenue systems and opportunities
Lead and coordinate the work of TCG’s operations departments, including specifically:
Finance and Administration
People & Culture
Information Technology
Contracts and Legal Oversight