Opportunities

OPPORTUNITIES BELOW ARE FOR;

FREELANCE PRODUCER
NOTES OF INTEREST FOR HOOT, CHILDRENS COMEDY THEATRE FESTIVAL

FREELANCE PRODUCER for HOOT! A Children’s Comedy Theatre Festival 2026

Application Deadline: 22/09/2025 at 12pm

Dirliebane Theatre Company

Contact info@dirliebane.org.uk

www.dirliebane.org.uk

About Dirliebane Theatre Company

Dirliebane Theatre Company was created by Fiona Ferrier and Rachel Colles in 2016 to make theatre clown performances and creative engagement programmes with and for babies, children, and young people. We use the practice of theatre clown to develop our work with our target audience through research, workshops, and work-in-progress sessions. All our performance work aims to reflect the thoughts, worries, ideas, and passions of our audience.

“That was perfect. It was a perfect show. There is nothing else out there like it. The children loved it, you were the kids and they were you”  – Depute Head East Craigs Primary School

Over the last year we have developed a Learning & Engagement programme across Perth & Kinross to engage children & their families in creative & immersive play based in clowning, working with a wide range of participants. We aim to build and grow this programme to be long term and sustainable.

We also began our Clown Play programme running weekend workshops for artists, practitioners, teachers, and anyone else who is interested in learning about theatre clown and how they can use it in their own practice.

We are a small team with a large family of long-term artists. We believe strongly in family & carer friendly working and support this through our production planning. We create strong partnerships and benefit from our long-term collaboration with Perth Theatre and Starcatchers alongside many groups and organisations in the communities we work in.

In 2024 Dirliebane became Perth Theatre’s Children’s Theatre Company in residence. We are part of Creative Scotland’s Multi Year Funding portfolio.

You can find information, photos, trailers, and feedback for all our work on our website www.dirliebane.org.uk

Dirliebane Theatre – CLOWN, CONNECTION and COMMUNITY

Producer Job Specification

We are looking for a freelance producer to work with us on Hoot! A Children’s Comedy Theatre Festival which will be based in Perth Theatre and running from 8^th October to the 11^th October 2026. The producer will work with us over a period of 11 months from December 2025 to October 2026.

We are looking for someone passionate and self-starting who can work on their own and in a team, who is flexible and calm and cares a lot about work for babies, children, and young people, their families, carers, and communities. Demonstrable experience is important but this could come from other sectors or from different life experience and will not necessarily be the deciding factor in choosing the right person for this role. We are keen to hear from a wide range of candidates, early, mid, or late career.

The Producer will have responsibility, alongside our Artistic Directors,  for ensuring the high-quality planning, delivery, and evaluation of the festival.

The Producer is expected to:

• Support the Artistic Directors to manage the festival programme through development, delivery, and evaluation
• Support the Artistic Directors in creating the overall festival schedule
• Bring ideas and creativity to develop new strands and initiatives for programming
• Liaise with Perth theatre for technical and FOH requirements alongside the Production Manager
• Plan and organise logistics related to artists, participants and events including schedules, travel & accommodation, catering, equipment, and risk assessments.
• Support our Artists-in-Residence in our partner schools to deliver work with the children for the festival
• Support the programming of work with additional artists
• Establish and ensure project timelines and milestones are being met by deadlines.
• Liaise with partner companies & artists, community members in support of the programme
• Chair and minute relevant meetings
• Research funding opportunities to support the festival including corporate partnerships
• Support the creation of copy for marketing, social media posts and website updates.
• Work within and manage delegated budgets
• Undertake project evaluation including gathering statistical information and preparation of reports as required.
• Write contracts for companies and freelancers

Producer Person Specification

Essential:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Experience working within and managing budgets
• A flexible and creative attitude
• Experience working with a wide range of people
• Strong project management skills
• Highly organised and adept at managing their own workload
• A strong interest in arts for babies, children, and young people

Desirable:

• Fundraising experience
• Driver’s license
• Good working knowledge of the arts sector in Scotland

Offer

• Freelance fee of £12800 (based on a daily rate of £200)
• We estimate this to be 64 days across 11 months (December 2025 to October 2026)
• Mix of remote working and on-site at Perth Theatre or other spaces. Some evening and weekend working expected.
• Flexible working culture

HOOT! A Children’s Comedy Theatre Festival

Based at Perth Theatre this will be a new festival celebrating comedy theatre for children. Our plans for the programme include:

• Work from companies across Scotland
• Work from Dirliebane Theatre Company
• Artists-in-Residence working in two partner schools to create theatre comedy sketches with their pupils to perform at the festival
• A range of work from freelance artists including a theatre clown revue, pop-up performance and other theatre pieces
• Comedy walkabout with Perth Youth Theatre
• Workshops and interactive activities

We expect the Producer to be involved in all aspects of the festival delivery.

How to apply

To apply, please submit a CV (maximum 2 A4 sides) and a cover letter (maximum two A4 sides) to info@dirliebane.org.uk by 12pm on Monday 22^nd September 2025

In your cover letter, please include:

• Why you are interested in this role.
• The skills, knowledge, and experience that you will bring to this role.
• Why you are interested in the arts for babies, children & young people.

 Hoot! Is all about celebrating the power of laughter and comedy in theatre to connect with babies, children, and young people. If you would like to, please also tell us in your cover letter about what always makes you laugh, for example, for our Co-Artistic Director Rachel, it is Kermit the frog!

If you would like to chat to us about the role before applying, please email rachel@dirliebane.org.uk with Freelance Producer in the subject line.

Your application will be read by our Co-Artistic Directors, Rachel Colles & Fiona Ferrier and our board members Tim Licata and Gemma Greig-Kicks

We will contact you if you are selected for an interview which will take place in person or online, depending on your preference.

Call out for Notes of Interest for HOOT!

Dirliebane Theatre Company in collaboration with Perth Theatre are creating a Children’s Comedy Theatre Festival in October 2026. The festival will include performances, pop up shows, artists-in-residence in schools creating work with the pupils to bring to the festival, walkabout theatre, workshops, comedy revues and much more!

We are keen to talk to companies, groups and individual artists who are interested in presenting comedy theatre work for children aged 0 to 12 years. We have lots of ideas of what we want to programme but we are also curious and excited to discover what is out there and what might be possible.

We would like to talk to:

• Companies who have a comedy theatre show which they would like to bring
• Groups or artists who have created comedy theatre work for children
• Individual artists who love comedy theatre and are interested in creating work for children
• Artists who have experience working with children to create their own comedy theatre
• Artists with comedy ideas!

The festival will run at Perth Theatre from October 8^th to October 11^th 2026.

All artists & companies working with us in the festival will be paid at appropriate daily rates and fees, all above Equity minimum.

We wish to work with a diverse group of artists. Please get in touch to talk to us about your ideas and proposals.

Email info@dirliebane.org.uk to arrange a chat.

Dirliebane is in the Creative Scotland Multi Year Funding Portfolio. In 2026 we will be celebrating 10 years of creating theatre clown work for children and young people including performance and creative engagement.

Dirliebane  – CLOWN CONNECTION COMMUNITY

We treat all role applications equally, regardless of age, disability, gender identity, race, ethnicity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, or any other equality characteristic. We particularly encourage applications from people identifying from the Global Majority.