Director Of Marketing And Communications

Bay Street Theater

Director of Marketing & Communications

December 2024

Bay Street Theater is seeking a Director of Marketing & Communications to develop and execute comprehensive marketing strategies. This role is responsible for managing all aspects of press and marketing for the Theater and its programming, including branding and public relations. The Director ensures excellence in all communications and brand consistency across all platforms, while also handling the organization’s partnerships with advertising and media agencies.

Reporting to the Executive Director, the Director of Marketing & Communications plays a key role in shaping the identity, personality and character persona of Bay Street Theater, ensuring that the organization’s voice is a natural extension of its mission and connects with its range of audiences.

The ideal candidate has a proven track record of building and executing strategic marketing, communications and social media plans that deliver measurable results. This role requires adept managerial skills, strong data analysis, and experience working with theatrical or similar organizations, non-profit institutions a plus.

Responsibilities

Bay Street Theater is revisiting its brand and seeks to introduce a new vision and website concurrently at the end of Q1 2025. The new Director will oversee the strategy and essential duties of the launch.

The Director of Marketing and Communications ensures brand consistency across all communications, including digital, print, radio, social media, and on-site collateral.

• Develop a cohesive narrative for the Theater, performances, education offerings, and other programming (off-season, fundraising initiatives, etc.). The Director of Marketing and Communications will ensure all day-to-day communications, public relations, marketing, design, and related activities are executed with a level of excellence in support Bay Street Theater’s mission.
• Supervise and support the Marketing Coordinator, fostering professional growth and development in support of new and evolving marketing and communications needs.
• Manage relationships with external media, PR, and digital marketing agencies
• Manage the Marketing and Communications budget, making strategic decisions to optimize resources and achieve organizational goals.
• Oversee Bay Street Theater’s website and digital communication platforms (e.g., Social media platforms, MailChimp)

Marketing and Communications

• Collaborate with other management to build annual marketing plan, establish and implement ad buys and planning, and develop the annual marketing budget and strategy
• Develop, manage, implement advertising media plan and contracts
• Approve marketing expenses
• Coordinate media placement with Executive Director and Artistic Director
• Oversee copywriting for print, digital, radio and television ads
• Works with Coordinator on implementation of graphics, printing and production of playbills, programs, posters, flyers, postcards, lobby tv rotators, rack cards, brochures, photography
• Assess and analyze data to inform marketing strategies
• Provide marketing support for Development programs and mail campaigns.

Public Relations and Community Engagement

· Manage press relations for local, regional, and national press

· Pitch stories and interviews

· Draft and coordinate press releases with Marketing Coordinator

· Manage photography with Marketing Coordinator, Artistic Director and Executive Director

· Build on relationships with media (print, web, bloggers, tv, radio)

· Schedule and organize press junkets with the Executive and Artistic Director

· Invite and manage press for special events with Marketing Coordinator

Social Media and Website

· Provide strategy and brand direction for website

· Track changes to website with Marketing Coordinator

· Coordinate strategy with Marketing Coordinator for social media posts and regular eblasts

Special Projects

· Work with the Executive Director and Artistic Director on special projects as they arise.

· Assist at special events, off-season functions, education/community activities, and performances as needed/available on various tasks.

· Provide materials for board meetings; attend staff meetings

II. OTHER

The Director of Marketing and Communications performs other support functions and duties as needed. Bay Street Theater is a growing organization with a small staff. Employees are often called upon to perform other duties essential to accomplish organizational goals and meet important deadlines.

About Bay Street Theater

Bay Street Theater & the Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is a year-round, not-for-profit professional theater (LORT C) and community cultural center that endeavors to innovate, educate, and entertain a diverse community through the practice of the performing arts. We serve as a social and cultural gathering place, an educational resource, and a home for a community of artists. The theater configuration is a 3/4 thrust stage with 299-seats in a 14,000 square feet facility that includes a lobby with a bar, a box office, rehearsal room, production and administrative offices, a costume shop, dressing rooms, and storage.

Bay Street Theater was founded in 1991 by Sybil Christopher, Emma Walton Hamilton and Stephen Hamilton. Many of the productions that premiered or were developed at Bay Street have moved to Broadway, Off-Broadway, regionally and abroad, including , , and to name a few. Bay Street is considered " ...one of the Country's pre-eminent regional theatres" (CBS Sunday Morning) and "...in the same league with the best major regional and Off-Broadway theatres." (Newsday).

Main Stage

The Mainstage Series is carefully designed with attention to a commitment to quality programming in agreement with Actors Equity. The cornerstone of Bay Street’s programming is its Mainstage Series typically consisting of three to four fully staged Equity productions that run May to September. A season consisting normally of one new work, one classic recreation and a musical round out the summer. The Mainstage drives the largest earned income through ticket sales. Bay Street is proud to have produced over two-dozen World Premieres and many more American Premieres since 1992. Bay Street offers Free Student Sunday Matinees, offering students the chance to enjoy live theater. Bay Street also offers Pay What You Can night on the first Tuesday of preview week for each Mainstage Production, plus other ongoing offers such as $20 Under 20 to make sure that our productions are accessible to all.

New Works

With a commitment to new work as a part of its mission, the annual TITLE WAVE: NEW WORKS FESTIVAL features readings of new plays in development, providing playwrights a chance to hear their works in progress in front of a live audience, and learn from the response. The New Works series of plays and musicals is an opportunity for playwrights to work on their play in-person with directors and professional actors. Selected plays are provided with dramaturgical notes from our artistic leadership, rehearsal time, and a public staged reading on the Bay Street Theater stage in Sag Harbor, New York, followed by an audience talkback. Selected pieces may have had re-writes and may now be in their third or fourth draft, at a stage where the addition of in-person creatives can be used to their full value. Title Wave: New Works Festival is curated by Hope Villanueva, Literary Manager at Bay Street Theater who says, “... In these tumultuous times, it’s our responsibility to support artists creating new works and speaking to the issues and concerns we are presently experiencing.”

Education Programming

Literature Live! was successfully launched in 2009 with the production of . Now in its eleventh year, the program brings classic works of literature to life on stage for school groups, families, and the general public. Using curriculum-based literature, Bay Street creates a unique learning experience by inviting students, teachers, and administrators to see professional productions supported with teacher-developed lesson plans and reference materials. Each production is followed by a “Q&A” session with the cast and special guests. Running the month of November, Literature Live! productions have included many of the classics including The Miracle Worker, To Kill A Mockingbird, , and , just to name a few. Bay Street is proud to offer free tickets to all students that attend a Literature Live! production. Members of the cast and crew are also made available after the production to talk with students about themes relating to the play.

Introduced in 2023, the Writing the Wave Creative Writing Competition for teens enables youth to explore their passions as authors, poets, artists, songwriters, and playwrights. Submissions include plays, rap, creative writing, and poetry. Winning work is selected on originality, creativity, and innovative use of language by judges included playwrights, actors, children’s authors, and other industry professionals. Students of winning work read or perform their work by themselves, or with the aid of professional actors, on the Bay Street stage in front of a live audience.

Bay Street has been offering youth Theater Camps since 2009 addressing major areas of theater, including acting, singing, dance, improvisation, performance and more. The sessions are offered during school vacation breaks and in the summer with professional instructors who have performed on Broadway and at other venues. Bay Street’s Adult Educational Programming focuses on topics such as Stage Acting, Playwriting, Storytelling, Improvisation Techniques, Comedy, Basics of Singing, and Ballroom Dancing.

Partnerships

Community Engagement programs are integral to the mission of Bay Street Theater as it endeavors to innovate, educate, and entertain a diverse community through the practice of the performing arts. Bay Street proudly serves as a social and cultural gathering place, an educational resource, and a home for a community of artists. Programs with broad appeal beyond theater productions include comedy shows, musical performances, and concerts.

Through strong partnerships across the East End of Long Island, Bay Street provides its stage and facility to community organizations that do not have bricks and mortar space including the Hamptons Doc Fest, an Eastern Long Island organization founded to champion and celebrate the rich, diverse and challenging world of documentary film; the Shinnecock Nation; the Black Film Festival; the Butterfly Effect Project, a nonprofit organization designed to empower young girls; Organización Latino-Americana (OLA) who works to create a more equitable East End for Latino immigrants; and the East End Special Players, to name a few.

The successful candidate will bring 7+ years’ managerial experience in a similar role, with a proven track record of achieving sales and ticketing goals. In addition, strong copywriting and storytelling skills across various mediums, including written, spoken, and visual communications and an understanding of how to balance storytelling with analytics when creating a marketing and communications plan is required. Established relationships with advertising agencies, PR firms, and local design and media professionals is a plus. A higher education degree in Business, Marketing, or Communications is also a plus. The successful candidate will possess a genuine interest in contributing to a culture of teamwork and excellence by collaborating and solving problems across departments, and a passion for engaging with visitors and guests to ensure they feel welcome and have the information they need for a memorable experience.

Bay Street Theater & the Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is a year-round, not-for-profit professional theater and community cultural center which endeavors to innovate, educate, and entertain a diverse community through the practice of the performing arts. We serve as a social and cultural gathering place, an educational resource, and a home for a community of artists. Bay Street Theater is an EEO.

Submit your cover letter and resume (as one PDF) to hr@baystreet.org with the subject line: Director of Marketing & Communications.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $80,000.00 - $100,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday
• Weekends as needed

Ability to Relocate:

• Sag Harbor, NY 11963: Relocate before starting work (Required)

Work Location: In person