Work Experience
APPLICATIONS FOR JULY 2025 ARE NOW OPEN
Every year, the ADC Theatre aims to offer the opportunity for a few students in Year 10 to complete a one-week work experience placement. Places are typically very popular and competitive, but if you are interested then we'd love to hear from you.
Please read through the following information to check that this is the right programme for you.
The programme is designed to introduce the behind-the-scenes work that goes into theatre administration. The actual activities will depend on the interests of the successful applicants, but please note that this is an administrative placement, and will not involve any form of performance or involvement with a production. If you are looking for experience in acting or directing, this is not the right placement for you.
If, however, you are interested in how a theatre works and is managed, then please do apply. To give you an idea of the kind of things that you might be doing, past activities have included:
- A tour of the theatre, Front of House and Backstage.
- Learning about the termly programming process and how the Theatre Manager decides what productions should be staged at the theatre and its sister venue, the Corpus Playroom, both in and out of student term time.
- Learning how the theatre brings in audiences through its marketing strategies.
- Learning about the theatre’s Front of House operations including FOH management and the Box Office.
- Learning about the theatre’s financial systems and budget.
- Learning about some of the theatre’s technical equipment and risk assessment procedures.
- Learning about the process of bringing a show to the stage: from pre-production and putting together a production team, to rehearsals and staging.
In order to fit in with the theatre’s busy schedule, work experience placements for 2025 will be for one week, Monday to Friday, either the week starting Monday 7th July or the week starting Monday 14th July. The week we choose will be decided during the application process, so if you are only available for one of those weeks, just let us know, and we will take this into account, but we will not be able to do the work experience at a different time.
Applications for placements in July 2025 are now open for Round 1 and will close on Friday 31st January 2025 at midday. We recommend that you apply as early as you can, but all applications will be assessed equally no matter when they are submitted, provided they are submitted before the deadline. As there are often many students applying, and places are highly competitive, we will not be accepting late applications and we may not be able to provide feedback to all unsuccessful applicants.
After this first round of applications has closed, we will select some of the candidates in the first week of February. The chosen candidates will be invited for a short interview at the theatre in mid-February and final selections will be made once all the interviews have been completed.
To apply, please send a CV (no more than one side of A4) and a cover letter to operations@adctheatre.com
In your letter please include:
- Why you are interested in an administrative work placement at the ADC Theatre.
- What part of theatre management you would be most interested in learning about.
- What skills you think are necessary for someone working in theatre management, and describe a couple of experiences you have had that demonstrate that you have some of these skills.
- Tell us about a show you have seen and what you enjoyed about it. (This doesn’t have to be a show at the ADC!)
- Your availability for the week of 7th July and 14th
This might sound like a gruelling process, but by doing it in this way, it gives students excellent experience of applying for jobs, and helps us to select the right students for the placement.
If you have any questions, do get in touch by contacting the Operations Manager, Patrick Nielsen, by email: operations@adctheatre.com
In the meantime, if this looks like it is a placement for you, then good luck and we look forward to hearing from you!
"The work experience placement at the ADC is a fantastic introduction to all aspects of theatre administration, from using your creativity in the programming process to the practicalities of the theatre's finance. This placement truly does give you a deep insight into the many different skills required in the essential operations of a theatre. I would highly recommend this placement to anyone, with or without experience in theatre, as the breadth of skills that you will gain will demonstrate that there really is more to theatre than just the performance, with the placement also being a really fun way to spend some of your summer."