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The O’Neill is committed to diversifying the future of the American theater through the stories we tell and the people we hire. We invite and encourage applications from talented artists, technicians, and administrators from all underrepresented groups. Please review our current openings and apply through BambooHR.

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Soon, we will begin accepting applications for the myriad positions needed to fully staff the O’Neill’s summer season. Before we do, we felt it was important to share some context around the structure we’ll be implementing this summer, especially as it relates to conversations that began at the end of the 2021 season with the apprentice cohort at the time.

 

Last summer, our apprentices and others shared that their experience at the O’Neill was inequitable, overly taxing in relation to compensation, and lacking sufficient educational opportunities. In response, we capped their work week at 40 hours per week, increased their weekly stipends, and reassigned many of their responsibilities to full time staff members to decrease the burden on the apprentice cohort.

 

After carefully considering the needs for our 2022 summer season, our current staffing levels, and our financial position, we have decided not to field an apprentice cohort this summer. We came to this decision for several reasons. Chief among them is that we need additional time to continue evaluating the program, assess what we can offer young professionals moving forward, and ultimately determine whether or not the apprentice model is right for the O’Neill.

 

This summer, we will be moving ahead with some of the measures implemented last season and introducing a handful of additional changes that we hope will ensure a better experience for O’Neill staff. These include:

 

• Continuing the practice of our professional conferences being dark on Mondays

• Spreading out the summer schedule to decrease overlap in production calendars and reduce staff workload

• Focusing on supporting our core programs and reducing the ancillary programming

• Maintaining the pay increases we instituted at the end of last summer

• Adjusting the pay structure to better align with the job responsibilities for supervisors

 

We also received feedback that our employee policies were not clearly defined, comprehensive enough, or uniformly disseminated. We are continuing to update our policies and streamline our onboarding processes to better communicate our anti-bias, anti-harassment, and EDI policies, as well as our reporting procedures, to all staff members.

 

In addition, we have adjusted our HR structure in order to create a better chain of reporting, so that no one finds themselves delivering concerns to the person responsible for their hiring, onboarding, and/or weekly compensation. It is our intention to create avenues for addressing concerns that don’t pose conflicts of interest, and we will continue to refine them as they are put into practice.

 

Part of our efforts to implement a stronger employee support structure has been our ongoing work around equity, diversity, and inclusion at the O’Neill. Last year, we began a partnership with Equity Quotient and undertook a series of their Learning Labs for the staff and board. We are continuing that partnership to identify where we can better align our values with our organizational and artistic practices. Equity Quotient is also helping us develop additional materials for staff and board training.

 

Last summer, we met our 2020 commitment to add five new BIPOC members to our board of trustees. We are continuing to recruit new members to take this goal even further. We also wrote a standing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee into the board’s bylaws, and that group began meeting regularly last fall. Though we have made strides in diversifying our staff, we haven’t come as far as we had hoped. We are working closely with the EDI Committee to address the ways we can better perform in this area. We have begun posting paid advertisements with outlets more likely to reach a diverse talent pool alongside targeted outreach, and will continue to do so moving forward.

 

Lastly, moving forward, all professional staff will receive anti-harassment and anti-bias training. During the summer season, each conference will incorporate this training into the start of their rehearsal process.

 

These steps are a continuation of our ever-evolving, values-based agenda aimed at creating a more inclusive, diverse, and supportive organization. We are committed to finding more opportunities to advance these efforts in the months and years ahead. 

The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center is committed to diversifying the future of the American theater through the stories we tell, the artists telling those stories, the staff supporting our work, and the audiences in our theaters. The O’Neill strives to cultivate a healthy and diverse community that recognizes the value of each individual and helps foster safety, civility, and respect for all people. All participants and employees in any O’Neill program, including students, staff, faculty, guests, and visitors, have the right to be free from sexual, racial, and gender-based discrimination, harassment, and violence and all other forms of prohibited conduct. Learn more about the O'Neill's Mission & Values.

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Spend a summer on the Connecticut shoreline at the O'Neill! Summer staff make a season of developing new plays, musicals, cabaret acts, and puppet theater possible. Get intensive experience, full integration with O'Neill professional staff, and participate in all the activity of an #ONeillSummer.​

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Summer at the O'Neill

• Three meals a day in our full-service cafeteria (attentive to dietary restrictions)

• Centrally located on the CT shoreline, 2 hours from NYC or Boston

• Some positions may included housing and local transportation