Co-Collaboration Leads of MCC Youth Company Performance Lab

MCC seeks two highly motivated, collaborative and skilled theater artists to co-lead the 27th annual Youth Company Performance Lab in collaboration with the MCC Learning & Culture department. The program serves high school students from across NYC, where co-leads guide these young artists through writing, vocal training, and design exercises to devise and perform an original work titled UNCENSORED over the course of 4 months.

Why Co-Leads? MCC highly values collaboration and building shared learning. Co-leading this program is an exciting opportunity to model these values for young people while also allowing for the potential that each Co-Lead has a unique skillset that contributes to the greater whole. We believe this combination can provide the highest level of support, flexibility and artistry to teaching artists and students alike in creation of UNCENSORED.

About MCC Theater

MCC Theater is one of New York’s leading non-profit Off-Broadway theater companies, driven by a mission to provoke conversations that have never happened and otherwise never would. Founded in 1986, by Bob LuPone (1946-2022) and Bernie Telsey, and later joined by co-Artistic Director Will Cantler, MCC fulfills its mission through the production of world, American, and New York premiere plays and musicals that challenge audiences, artists, and students alike to confront contemporary personal and social issues. This is done through four programmatic areas: annual productions of new plays and musicals; programming to support the development of new work by artists with bold voices; deep and enriching public engagement programs; and in-school and onsite educational programs that foster in high school students the desire to be heard and the courage to speak out.

In January 2019, MCC Theater opened and took residence in the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space in Hell’s Kitchen. The venue features two state-of-the-art theaters, two studios, and additional program and office space. This transition brought all artistic and educational programming as well as administrative operations under one roof for the first time in MCC’s history.

Recent and celebrated productions include Birthright, Cold War Choir Practice, Trophy Boys, Shit. Meet. Fan., Table 17, The Connector, Walk on Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice, Soho Rep’s Wolf Play, School Girls; or The African Mean Girls Play, All The Natalie Portmans, The Wrong Man, Alice by Heart, Hand to God, among many others.

Our Values

From MCC’s early days on 42nd St, through a long residency at the Lucille Lortel Theater in Greenwich Village, to the recent move into our current multi-stage facility in Hell’s Kitchen, MCC’s mission has been to provoke conversations that have never happened and otherwise never would.  To us, this mission has always meant building space for discussions about new, transformative ideas with a community that is engaged, vibrant and expansive.  Along the way we’ve learned about new and better ways to serve the mission both in our productions and in our internal operations.

Fulfilling our mission relies upon a deep understanding of and serious commitment to diversity.  Our experiences have taught us that a fundamental part of our progress is being a company with a workspace where a diverse staff can have productive, honest exchanges. We also have to be a company that promotes talent and topics on stage that invite the entire community into the conversation.  In different ways, we have applied this thinking over the years to improve both our internal operations and our productions. But we also know there is more important work to do.

As part of this work and our journey, MCC has articulated a set of values that are a central underpinning of how the organization operates and exists on a daily basis. These values – Artistry, Collaboration, Inclusion, Empathy, and Accountability – are key to modeling and catalyzing positive change within the theater industry

Compensation

• Non-facilitation rate: $40/hr
• Facilitation rate: $100/hr
• All facilitation time is in-person on-site at MCC Theater

Primary Responsibilities

• Drive curriculum development in collaboration with MCC Learning & Culture staff and Co-Lead – focusing on building ensemble, devising vocal production, and performance training.
• Lead ensemble in active, weekly workshop-based creative prompts, developing their artistic voice, and performance skills.
• Intentionally curate the culminating performance from student writings and collaborations to create a cohesive script.
• Participate in training and staff development activities.
• Collaborate and communicate with Learning & Culture staff to ensure the goals of the Performance Lab are being met.
• Collaborate with Co-Lead and designers to direct the culminating production of Uncensored.

The ideal candidate should have:

• Experience working with NYC teens as a teaching artist, facilitator, and/or director.
• Experience in curriculum development and teaching rooted in devising, vocal work, movement, writing and performance etc. Applicants, please note experience working in specific techniques including, but not limited to, voice work like Fitzmaurice or Linklater, Theatre of the Oppressed, Moment Work, Viewpoints, puppetry, shadow work, clowning, lighting and/or live sound.
• Innovative classroom management, organizational, and time-management skills.
• Knowledge of, and ability to ground teaching in social emotional learning and social issues that impact our Youth Company actors and experience working with students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).
• Demonstrated experience in a collaborative work environment including working with a production team.
• A learner first mentality, meaning the Co-Lead is open to learning from and alongside the Youth Company members and other members of the production team.
• Knowledge of and deep investment in anti-racist work with an understanding of how your intersectional identity and positional power impacts the way you show up as a facilitator.
• Experience facilitating research and dramaturgical work.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Flexibility to work evening and weekend hours.

Approximate time commitment:

February 23, 2027 to May 8, 2027

Tuesday and Thursdays from 4:30pm-7:30pm; Saturdays from 1pm to 4pm

Tech Week April 26-30 from 10am-6pm

Uncensored Performances April 30 and May 1, 6, 7, and 8

Equal Opportunity Employer

In accordance with our values, we seek to have the best available person in every job. To that end, MCC is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions based on qualifications. We do not allow employment decisions to be made on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, religion, creed, sex, gender, gender identity, transgender status, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, predisposing genetic characteristics, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital status, citizenship status, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical condition, partnership status, unemployment status, domestic victim status, veteran status, uniformed service, protected activity (i.e., opposition to prohibited discrimination or participation in proceedings covered by the anti-discrimination statuses) or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, and local law. All employment-related activities are conducted on a non-discriminatory basis and in full compliance with any federal, state, and local laws prohibiting discrimination in employment. Violations of this policy are strictly prohibited. Every employee undertakes, through such an employee’s employment, to comply with this policy.

The facilities at MCC Theater are fully accessible and ADA compliant with self-opening entrance doors, elevators, ramps, and ADA-compliant restrooms on both floors.

Hiring process:

• Submission deadline is Friday, October 30, 2026
• Approximately 3 interviews during the month of November – second round interviews will be in-person, first and third may be zoom calls.
• Start date: Co-Leads will need to begin onboarding and pre-production meetings around January 11, Performance Lab begins sessions on Tuesday, February 23, 2027.
• Send cover letter, resume, and work sample to jobs@mcctheater.org with the subject line Collaboration Co-Lead for Performance Lab.
• In your cover letter, be sure to highlight your approach to collaboration and co-leadership and any specific pedagogy and techniques that inform your artistic practice. Examples of work samples include: links to archival video, production photos, excerpts of scripts (no more than ten pages), website.
• A note on Co-lead – applicants are welcome to apply solo or with a current collaborator; In the event two artists would like to apply as a team only one cover letter is needed and should lay out how this team would approach this opportunity together.

No mail or phone calls please.