The National High School Institute (Cherubs Program) at Northwestern University is a 5-week summer intensive for students entering their senior year of high school. They come from around the world and spend five weeks receiving a conservatory-style theatre education, culminating in 8 fully-mounted productions that all perform in rep. Students serve as cast, crew, and stage managers for the productions. Professional directors, designers, and technicians oversee and guide students through the process.

Assistant Technical Director will be primarily responsible for assisting with technical design,and construction of all shows in our eight-show season, as well as training and supervising student crews in all scenic construction and load-ins and changeovers. Assistant Technical Director will work alongside TD, Scenic Painter, and both Scenic Designers in all tasks.

Specific responsibilities include:

Attend in-person production meetings. We will have one production meeting prior to students arriving on campus; a second meeting once rehearsals start, which will include our student stage managers; and a third meeting just before going into tech, again with our student stage managers.
Attend weekly NHSI all-staff meetings.
Assist in the creation of technical construction drawings from Scenic Designer+rsquo;s design drawings.
Help prep any materials that cannot be accomplished by student crews, including (but not limited to) using the table saw, chop saw, and CNC router (when needed). This often entails working in the morning to cut lumber to be ready for crews in the afternoon.
Be present during every afternoon crew session to help train and work with student Scenery crews in the scene shop. The ATD will be responsible for planning tasks, but will receive assistance from other members of Scenic/Technical team to supervise and execute these tasks.
Helping to facilitate student-led Design Challenge.

Assist marking out and loading in scenery for on-stage evening rehearsals.

Attend on-stage evening rehearsals.
Train student run crews on changeover tasks, as well as specific run crew tasks for each production.
Attend tech and dress rehearsals.
Oversee scenic run crews and changeovers during performances.
Participate in strike at the end of the program
Attend the final banquet.
While this represents roughly 95% of responsibilities, it is not exhaustive.

Ideal candidates are those who enjoy working with students and have a passion for instruction and understand that our process is more important than our product. While we do want our shows to look and sound beautiful, that should not come at the expense of anyone+rsquo;s safety or mental health.