Visionary Theatre Director in Woking

New Wimbledon Theatre has been an iconic landmark in Wimbledon since 1910, presenting a year-round programme of musicals, comedy, family entertainment, dance, drama, and its legendary annual pantomime.

In March 2024, the theatre hosted Sir Ian McKellen for the world-premiere staging of Player Kings, which ran from 1 March to 22 June before transferring to the West End. The theatre continues to present a vibrant programme of major touring productions. Recent and upcoming highlights for 2025–2026 include Dear England, The Choir of Man (touring through March 2026), Waitress (March–April 2026), The Karate Kid: The Musical (April–May 2026), Annie (May 2026), Jersey Boys (June 2026), and Mean Girls: The Musical (opening November 2026).

2026 is an exciting year to be joining New Wimbledon Theatre, as we prepare for investment works to enhance the customer experience and future-proof the venue for new audiences. The theatre is also a sought-after filming location, featuring in major productions including The Crown, Misbehaviour and The Nevers, as well as a Vogue photoshoot with Kylie Minogue.

People are at the heart of our success. We are passionate about bringing great live experiences to the widest possible audience; about giving the world’s best creative talent the stage it deserves; and about providing our people and partners with opportunities to realise their full potential.

The senior leader in the venue, a major player in the local community - this role drives performance, profit and service delivery to customers, producers, and the business. Requires collaboration with colleagues in other venues, central functions and in the wider community to ensure best practice and excellent standards.

The incoming Theatre Director will be instrumental in elevating the reach and status of the venue and should be an ambitious visionary with the drive to transform the growth of the operation.

Key responsibilities

• To contribute to ATG’s strategic goals by developing an ambitious vision and corresponding business plan for your venue, and implementing short-, medium- and long-term plans to achieve the plan.
• To achieve, or exceed, budget expectations.
• Ensure your venue is perceived to be vital to its community, and a desired destination for customers and producers.
• To offer inspiring leadership both internally and externally.
• Take responsibility for the overall performance of your business, ensuring that there is a balanced approach to Customers, Shareholders, Employees, Reputation, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Development.
• Provide and determine the smartest allocation of resources in your control – and ensure the balance of resources is proportionate and appropriate to achieve short-, medium- and long-term goals.
• Actively create and pursue new income streams, including sponsorship, which fit the overall business objectives and vision.
• To work to and help formulate the Business Plan for your venue, in consultation with your Business Director and your Business Partner (Finance Team) and deliver against its objectives.
• Take responsibility for the growth of venue EBITDA as agreed with Board of Directors through setting, monitoring, and reviewing the goals and objectives of the venue’s management team.
• To contribute to the programming of the venue through participation in an effective and collaborative dialogue with the Programming Director and his team; taking positive ownership of the resulting programme and offering ideas and/or new relationships to contribute to its longer-term development.
• To create a positive work culture for your team – ensuring a focus on individual development, open dialogue, and creative thinking in order to drive forward performance of both the employee and venue.
• Ensure your teams are capable and able to deliver first class service to a range of internal and external customers.
• Ensure the teamwork towards the agreed goals and targets and regularly review performance against those targets, dealing with performance issues appropriately.
• Represent the venue and ATG generally as necessary ensuring that the venue maintains its own reputation and its status as part of an industry leading organisation.
• Support the development and delivery of community engagement activities and seek opportunities to further develop or support the venue through local partnerships.
• Ensure you comply with all legislative requirements for people, standards, health & safety.
• Be an ambassador for ATG Entertainment, hosting new starter inductees to the business as a Centre for Excellence venue leader.

Your skills, qualities, and experience

If you are able to demonstrate many of the essential criteria, we encourage you to apply, and welcome transferable skills from other industries or backgrounds. We can give experience of any desirable criteria but may also use them to decide between candidates for this role.

Essential

• Previous experience working in a leadership and management capacity, as a minimum at an equivalent level to a head of department, or in positions of significant responsibility in smaller organisations.
• Proven ability to organise, lead and motivate a large and diverse team while engendering a sense of teamwork and common purpose.
• Creative and results-driven approach to delivering sophisticated, high-quality customer service in a busy environment; a focus on and prioritisation of the needs of our customer, client, or collaborator.
• Ability to pioneer positive change, engaging others and steering the team towards priority goals.
• Ability to manage and develop internal and external relationships at all levels and collaborate effectively with a diverse team.
• Skills and practical experience of supporting other people’s development, ideally including managing performance and training.
• Ability to work smartly, with proven skills in problem-solving, generating new ideas and budget management.
• A highly organised yet adaptable approach: the ability to plan and prioritise a varied workload, meet deadlines and ambitious targets, with the flexibility to take up opportunities as they present themselves.
• An ability to create a positive, engaging, and collaborative working environment.
• Good IT skills, with the ability to learn to use new software and systems.

Desirable

• Personal license holder.
• Knowledge of ticketing or retail systems.
• Relevant management qualifications or training.
• Health and Safety qualifications and/or experience.
• A genuine interest in the live entertainment industry is required; work experience in the industry is desirable but not essential and we actively encourage applications from individuals working in other sectors.

The Theatre Director is required to be a Personal License holder or undertake the training and assessment to gain a license on starting in the role, which ATG will arrange. The application process for a license includes a Disclosure and Barring Service check.

About Us - Our values

ATG Entertainment’s values set the tone for how we work, how we treat one another, and the culture we continue to build across the UK and the wider organisation.

• THRIVE doing what we love (with passion and dynamism)
• CONNECT through every act (with collaboration and kindness)
• DARE to do different (with curiosity and courage)
• PERFORM at our best (with customer focus and ownership)

Our Corporate Social Responsibility pillars

Everyone at ATG Entertainment is expected to play their part in achieving our goals and upholding our Corporate Social Responsibility priorities:

• Inclusion: Committing to creating and upholding a positive, inclusive culture that nurtures potential and supports well-being.
• Sustainability: Playing your part in reducing our environmental impact and finding more sustainable ways of working.
• Next Generations: Encouraging the next generation in live entertainment by contributing to our outreach and training programmes, including mentoring students and trainees, and supporting our Creative Learning and Community Partnerships work.

Our culture

You’ll help us uphold a positive culture around meeting our obligations, by having a positive attitude to health and safety, legal and insurance requirements and take care to understand our policies and procedures. We are all expected to participate actively in the life of the company, and opportunities will arise for you to collaborate with others across the business. Everyone at ATG Entertainment is expected to be flexible and adapt as the needs of the business change, taking on new or different responsibilities as the need arises.

Our Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access Mission Statement - A Stage for Everyone

Our stages are a platform for compelling stories – stories that are for all, by all, and of all. We shine our spotlight on our differences and believe that understanding and celebrating these differences makes us better global citizens. We are passionate about the pursuit of true diversity and equality. We strive to make our venues beacons of these ideals in our communities. Onstage and off, we hold ourselves accountable for nurturing an inclusive culture, one in which everyone can bring their authentic selves. At ATG entertainment, we provide a stage for everyone.

We recognise that we do not have all the answers; but we strive to listen, to learn and to change in order to ensure ATG Entertainment becomes a truly inclusive organisation. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from individuals from the widest possible range of backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from those currently underrepresented in our workforce.

We are a Disability Confident Committed Employer, which means that we are taking action to ensure that people with disabilities and long-term health conditions feel supported, engaged, and able to fulfil their potential in the workplace. We will offer an interview or recruitment event to disabled candidates who tell us they wish to participate in the scheme and who demonstrate in their application that they best meet the essential criteria for the role. Where we receive more applications than we are reasonably able to interview for any given role, we will retain applications for the next available interview opportunity wherever possible.