Performing-Arts Touring Recovery Leader

The mandate

The interim takes executive operating authority while the artistic director retains repertoire and creative decisions. The role must stabilise touring operations, restore confidence with funders and regional venues, and establish feasible scheduling and cost controls for the programming calendar.

The appointment begins within three weeks and lasts ten months through the current season, next programme lock and completion of a permanent search already commissioned. The first month reconciles every production, venue, crew, equipment, access and funding commitment and protects contracted artists. Months two through seven restore production gates and deliver the viable tour calendar; the closing phase proves the next season’s plan through technical, budget and regional-partner readiness before successor overlap.

Handover is complete when the permanent executive has led two board production reviews, each announced tour carries confirmed venue, crew, transport, access and funding evidence, and no critical technical post lacks a documented cover path. The successor inherits production books, contract exceptions, donor and grant conditions, venue dependencies, workforce risks, touring economics, cancellation triggers and a twelve-month decision calendar aligned to artistic and fundraising lead times.

The interim may reset production gates, re-sequence feasible dates, consolidate logistics, appoint temporary technical cover and renegotiate non-material venue or supplier arrangements inside approved budgets. Cancelling a named production, changing repertoire, ending permanent employment, breaching grant commitments, altering artist contracts, closing a regional programme or committing more than USD1.5 million requires board and artistic approval as applicable. Safety officers and technical specialists retain stop-work authority.

Artistic selection, creative interpretation, long-term donor strategy, theatre redevelopment and the permanent organisation design are outside scope. The interim will not force unsafe turnarounds, conceal access requirements, count unpaid labour as capacity or preserve headline tour volume through financially indefensible dates. Work concerns credible delivery of the approved artistic ambition and rebuilding partner trust; it does not give the temporary executive power to reshape the company’s cultural mission.

Why this seat is open

An executive departure followed the disclosure that public and donor promises had moved ahead of deliverable production plans. The next season cannot wait for a permanent appointment, and regional partners need firm answers now. Trustees require a leader who understands the inseparability of art, technical feasibility, workforce welfare and grant evidence, and who can leave an operating calendar the artistic leadership trusts.

What you will own

• Reconcile artistic, venue, crew, equipment, transport, access, funding and audience commitments for every live production.
• Decide which dates can proceed within delegated authority and present cancellation or re-sequencing choices with full consequences.
• Establish production gates for concept, design, rehearsal, technical readiness, venue confirmation, tour release and closure.
• Rebuild scarce-crew capacity plans across employment, freelance availability, travel, fatigue, succession and contingency cover.
• Reset venue and regional-partner communication around confirmed evidence, decision dates and documented change authority.
• Test the next season against illness, transport failure, venue loss, equipment delay and funding-restriction scenarios.
• Induct the permanent executive and transfer production books, risks, partner commitments and decision calendars.

Candidate qualifications

• Has held executive delivery authority in a national performing-arts, touring, festival or complex live-production organisation.
• Can evidence recovery of a public programme where artistic ambition materially exceeded technical and financial capacity.
• Understands production planning, touring logistics, venue contracts, technical crews, artist commitments, grants and accessibility.
• Has worked productively with an artistic director while preserving distinct creative and executive decision rights.
• Can rebuild donor and venue trust through evidenced commitments rather than overpromising a full public calendar.
• Has transitioned a recovered cultural operation to permanent leadership before the next programme lock.