Marketing & Communications Manager

Berkeley Playhouse Inc; Berkeley, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Worker’s Comp

Vacation and sick leave

Job summary

Berkeley Playhouse is seeking a Marketing & Communications Manager to lead storytelling across channels, build campaigns with the Director of Marketing & Development, and bring fresh ideas to education programs and fundraising.

You will manage social content, email campaigns, and the theater’s website, while collaborating with Education and Production teams. Evening and weekend events are part of the schedule.

Qualifications

• 2–4 years in marketing, communications, social media, or a closely related field
• Strong writing and proofreading across email, social, and print
• Working fluency in social media management and email marketing platforms (Mailchimp or similar)
• Comfort with web content management (WordPress or similar) and basic design tools (Canva, Adobe Creative Suite, or equivalent)
• Highly organized, with the ability to manage concurrent deadlines across a busy production calendar
• Genuine energy for both organic and paid marketing, and for supporting fundraising work
• Willingness to work some evenings and weekends around the show and event calendar

Responsibilities

• Own day‑to‑day management of social platforms (calendar, creation, posting, engagement).
• Create photo/video content across productions and coordinate vendors.
• Appear in social content as on-camera voice of Berkeley Playhouse if comfortable.
• Maintain consistent voice across email, web, print, social, and press.

Skills

Marketing strategy

Social media management

Content writing

Event coordination

Editing/proofreading

Public relations

Tools

Mailchimp

WordPress

Canva

Adobe Creative Suite

Job description

Schedule 40 hours per week, flexed around evenings and weekends on the show and event calendar

Benefits Health, Worker’s Comp, Vacation and Sick Leave

About Berkeley Playhouse

Berkeley Playhouse makes theater and theater education that engages, ignites, and celebrates the diverse communities of the Bay Area. Founded in 2007 out of an arts education organization started in 2000, we produce a four-show professional MainStage season from September through June, teach acting, singing, dance, and technical theater to beginners through advanced students in our Classes & Camps, and stage full-length musicals with young performers through YouthStage. In a typical year that adds up to roughly 28,000 patrons in our seats, more than 1,600 young people in our programs, and over 40,000 people connected to our work.

Our home is the Julia Morgan Theater, a 328-seat house on College Avenue that Julia Morgan designed in 1910 as St. John’s Presbyterian Church. Stewarding that building is part of our mission, and so is what it was always meant to do: bring people together.

About The Role

The Marketing & Communications Manager is the storyteller at the center of Berkeley Playhouse’s public life. This is a full support role across two of our external lanes: the marketing that fills the house and education programs and the fundraising that sustains the organization. You will execute campaigns designed with the Director of Marketing & Development, and you will bring ideas of your own. This is a job for someone who wants to build, not maintain.

You will live in our social channels, our email program, our website, and our playbill. You will be at opening nights, fundraisers, and camps and classes. And if you love the idea of sometimes being the literal on-camera face and voice of a theater company, there is room for that here.

This role follows the show schedule, so some evening and weekend work is required for events and performances. While day-to-day scheduling is flexible, attendance at select events is mandatory. We’re looking for someone who is energized by this pace.

Who You Will Work With

You report to the Director of Marketing & Development. Day to day you will partner closely with our Education and Production teams, the Director of Patron Services on ticketing and sales pages, and our contract photographers, videographers, designers, and print vendors.

What You’ll Do

Social Media & Content

• Own day-to-day management of the Berkeley Playhouse social platforms (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube): calendar, creation, posting, and community engagement.
• Create photo and video content across MainStage, YouthStage, and Classes & Camps, and coordinate contract photographers, videographers, and design vendors.
• Appear in social content as an on-camera voice of Berkeley Playhouse if you are comfortable there.
• Track what our community responds to and shares, and make more of it.

Brand & Communications

• Keep the Berkeley Playhouse voice consistent and alive across email, web, print, social, and press.
• Create, calendar, and send all email campaigns (Mailchimp) across MainStage, Education, and Development.
• Maintain the website (WordPress): content, sales pages, and event timing coordinated with the Director of Patron Services.
• Draft press releases, maintain media relationships, and pursue print and digital review coverage.
• Manage print collateral end to end: layout and design through fulfillment, including print and mail-house vendor relationships.
• Produce the in-house playbill for each production, including advertising layout and advertiser support.

Campaign Execution

• In collaboration with Education and Production teams, execute the marketing plan for every MainStage production and Education initiative: eblasts, social, paid digital, video trailers, and supplemental photography, tracking results across platforms.
• Support season pass and subscription campaigns: acquisition, renewal, and retention.
• Report campaign results against sales during each run.

Development Support

• Produce donor communications: the annual gratitude report, donor newsletter, and campaign mailings.
• Manage the playbill donor listings for each production and the website donor list.
• Run direct mail production for annual and end-of-year campaigns: merge, print, stuff, and mail.
• Provide logistics and production support for the online auction and fundraising events.
• Fulfill sponsorship deliverables: logo placement, playbill advertising, and partner recognition.

Events & Show Support

• Staff fundraising and donor events, opening nights, and community festivals; evenings and weekends follow the show schedule, and your week flexes around them.
• Support special events from setup through strike.

What We’re Looking For

Required

• 2–4 years in marketing, communications, social media, or a closely related field, or a portfolio that proves you do not need them
• Strong writing and proofreading across email, social, and print
• Working fluency in social media management and email marketing platforms (Mailchimp or similar)
• Comfort with web content management (WordPress or similar) and basic design tools (Canva, Adobe Creative Suite, or equivalent)
• Highly organized, with the ability to manage concurrent deadlines across a busy production calendar
• Genuine energy for both organic and paid marketing, and for supporting fundraising work with the same care
• Willingness to work some evenings and weekends around the show and event calendar

Preferred

• Experience in performing arts, nonprofit, or education marketing
• Photography, videography, or graphic design skills
• Familiarity with Google Ads, Google Analytics, or ticketing and donor CRM systems (AudienceView, Bloomerang)
• On-camera comfort
• Connection to the Berkeley or East Bay community

Read the full job description (PDF) for complete details on responsibilities, reporting structure, and terms of employment.

The content below is retained for context but note that any application instructions have been removed in refinement. Also, no phone calls, please.

Berkeley Playhouse is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a staff that reflects the diversity of the Bay Area, and we strongly encourage applications from people of color, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and people whose backgrounds are underrepresented in professional theater. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by law.