Assistant Stage Manager/Puppets/Wardrobe – Bing Live

Company profile

Minor Entertainment Group Ltd creates spectacular family theatre events. Bing Live is brought to you by the team behind In the Night Garden Live, which has toured across the UK in a purpose-built inflatable theatre and has been seen by over 900,000 people.

Bing Live launches in June 2018 and is a new stage production of the incredibly popular BBC children’s television series Bing, which will tour to theatres across the UK from June 2018 to April 2019. The production is directed by Will Tuckett.

Role summary

We are recruiting for a talented, hard-working and dependable Assistant Stage Manager who will also take specific responsibility for puppet and wardrobe maintenance.

The touring company will be a cast of six including an understudy, plus a touring stage management team who we expect to be a CSM, DSM (who also ops sound), an ASM (who also looks after puppet and wardrobe maintenance – this role) and a second ASM (who also looks after props). The production will tour in a single vehicle up to 40’ and haulage will be handled separately (you will not be expected to drive the van).

Schedule

Contract dates would be Sunday 20 May 2018 to Sunday 28 April 2019.

The tour will be split weeks, most commonly visiting two venues per week with a day for travel / get-in followed by two performance days of up to three shows per day. Occasionally, the production may visit three venues per week. There will be two days off each fortnight. The show will be approximately 75 minutes long, including an interval.

Rehearsals will be in London for four weeks from Monday 21 May and the production opens at the Alban Arena in week commencing 18 June.

Person specification

Essential:
• You have solid experience as an Assistant Stage Manager, including on tour.
• You have solid experience working with and maintaining puppets (all characters in the show are represented by puppets and it is critical that they are kept in excellent condition).
• You have experience working in wardrobe, of carrying out alterations and running maintenance on costumes.
• You’ll be experienced in prop maintenance.
• You’ll be great with people and a brilliant member of a team.
• You’re an excellent problem solver and enjoy a challenge.
• You have a good sense of humour and you’re happy to muck in to get the job done.
• You have a broad general knowledge of technical theatre.
• You’re attentive to detail.
• You care about the audience experience as much as we do.
Ideal:
• You’ll ideally have worked on some children’s theatre productions.

Job description

You will report to the company stage manager.

Stage management:
1. During rehearsals and performances you’ll run one of the stage wings.
2. You’ll assist with the get-in and get-out of the rehearsal room.
3. You’ll assist with the get-in and get-out of each tour venue.
4. You’ll assist with running prop and set maintenance as needed.
5. You’ll learn the rest of the stage management team’s show plots so that you can cover them.
6. You’ll ensure that standards onstage and backstage are kept high.
7. You’ll ensure that your show plot is kept up to date and provide it to the DSM for the production bible.
8. You’ll carry out other reasonable stage management duties as required by the CSM and producers to ensure the smooth running of the production.
9. You will be clear on our health & safety policies and procedures and be able to communicate them well.

Wardrobe and puppet maintenance
1. You’ll look after running maintenance of the puppeteer’s costumes on tour as needed.
2. You’ll carry out laundry at each tour venue as required.
3. You’ll make minor running alterations to costumes as required, according to any guidance given by costume makers.
4. You’ll carry out running maintenance to the puppets according to any guidance given by the puppet maker.
5. Keeping the puppets in excellent condition is one of the most important aspects of the production and of this job, so you’ll look after them meticulously and always ensure that they look their best.

Fee and expenses

The salary range for this role for all performance weeks is £550-£650 per week.

When you are on tour you will be paid a touring allowance of £35.71 per night at each tour venue (equivalent to £250 per week). Travel whilst you are on tour will also be either arranged at the producer’s expense or you will be paid the cash equivalent for such standard off-peak rail fares as may be required to fulfil calls for the production. No travel or accommodation expenses are paid when you are required to work in London for rehearsals or in the event that the production sits down in London for a period longer than one week.

Holiday

Holiday will be designated throughout the contract, which will always be subject to a minimum of three days for each period designated.

How to apply

Please email a covering letter (no longer than 300 words please) and your CV to binglive.asmwardrobe@minorentertainment.com with “ASM/Puppets/Wardrobe application” in the subject line. Please let us know in your application where you saw the job advertised.

Deadline

We will be holding interviews at our London office in week commencing 16 April 2018. Please submit your application by 10am on Tuesday 10 April 2018.