Co-Director(s)

Company Overview

Established in 1979, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is the largest and longest-running queer theatre company in the world. Buddies is a world leader in developing queer voices and stories for the stage. Buddies is an organization (organism) of 30+ employees, contract and hourly staff, as well as volunteers and guests. Buddies is housed in a City-owned building, situated on Indigenous land, nestled between gritty and gentrified, queer and mainstream neighbouring cultures. Buddies offers a year-round program that includes a full season of queer theatre, new works festivals, artist residencies, and intergenerational training and education initiatives. 

Over the past two years, we have upheld our mission to support queer voices by simultaneously changing the company’s practices and policies that are complicit in racism, anti-Blackness, ableism, and other barriers to participation, and producing 15+ shows/projects, supporting 500+ artists, developing 20+ tours and new works, and welcoming over 14 000 patrons online and in-person.

We are currently led by Daniel Carter as Managing Director, with the support of employees and contract staff, and a new Board of six community members representing a mix of theatre workers and professionals with subject matter expertise in areas such as equity, inclusion, governance and finances. We are also working the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence to re-imagine governance, leadership structures and organizational processes to be more adaptive to change and pro-active about community needs.

Job Description

At this time, we are recruiting one or more Co-Directors to join Daniel in leading Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and facilitating the important transformations ahead. We are looking for leader(s) with energy, organization, creative vision, community-mindedness, and incredible producing and sensemaking abilities because we live in turbulent times and have responsibilities to uphold as a queer cultural and community-oriented institution. We want leadership that has/have done their own work. We believe that leadership is not infallible. We are looking for leadership with whom we are willing to take risks and make (fewer and fewer) mistakes together in the right direction. 

This is an exciting opportunity to design your own job description. We are looking for one or more leaders interested in joining Daniel Carter at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre as Co-Directors. 

The recruitment package contains a long list of responsibilities for the leadership team. Bear in mind that this is a list of all the leadership responsibilities that will be shared between the Co-Directors, including Daniel, and/or be delegated to staff as appropriate. This is not a job description for one person.

On paper, Daniel Carter is currently Managing Director but new titles can be made when the right roles are co-developed by the new Co-Directors, and approved by the Board.