Assistant or Associate Professor of Directing (tenure-track)

Description

Carnegie Mellon University’s John Wells Directing Program invites applications for a full time, open rank, tenure-track Directing faculty position beginning August 2025.

The John Wells Directing Program prepares students for careers in live production (theatre, opera, performance installations), as well as for television and film, and other emerging forms of art and entertainment that utilize elements from these fields.

Under the mentorship of world-class faculty, emphasis is placed on developing individual artists who will be active voices, leading intensely collaborative creative processes. We combine established practices in the field, with innovative pedagogical, and technological advancement across all related subject areas, with intensive student-centered productions. We aim to prepare our students for a deep commitment to engaging with diverse art practices, championing interdisciplinary collaboration, exploring new forms of creative expression, and promoting community and equitable practices. 

Timeline: Begins in August 2025 with a commitment of nine months per year for an initial appointment of three years. 

Location:  Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania throughout the academic year.   

Position Description:  We seek an individual who is passionate about teaching a combination of practice and theory-based courses for MFA and BFA directing students in a conservatory setting. An individual who is excited to collaborate with the current chair of the department to help envision and build an innovative director development program dedicated to shaping the future generation of performance-makers. This person will have an instrumental voice in an ongoing forward-facing curricular review; and be an essential contributor to the future of conservatory education at CMU. 

Our ideal candidate will have a strong foundation in directing for the theater who works in live-performance, considers themselves a text-based director while also being able to teach staging techniques, is familiar with the global classical cannon, contemporary plays and has a committed professional practice of new work development. The School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University values candidates that exemplify a commitment towards building a more inclusive community which includes a vast array of identities and approaches to increased belonging who can utilize their experiences to increase the capacity of such practices. 

We are interested in candidates with experience with non-western theater and who have ideas on how to incorporate these approaches into our conservatory model of teaching, research and practice.

The successful candidate will teach specific courses determined in collaboration with the Area Chair, Kim Weild.  These courses will be taught to graduate and undergraduate students and will constitute foundational studies for both those populations.

We are interested in any of the following based on your own skillset: live theater staging techniques, new play development, director-generator-writer techniques, musical theater and opera directing, staging multi-media/multi-platform performance, digital media and/or film, immersive theater experiences, non-traditional approaches toward theater and collaboration across professional and disciplinary boundaries.

If you believe your skillsets can contribute although not specific to this position description, we encourage you to apply. We recognize that knowledge is acquired through a variety of experiences and may be reflective of a more broad understanding of the expertise we are seeking.

The person hired for this position will become an integral part of the dynamic, drama conservatory at the School of Drama in the College of Fine Arts and contribute service to the department, college and university at large.

Ongoing professional engagement is expected, encouraged, and supported.

We are deeply committed to an inclusive and equitable environment populated with diverse artists who inspire innovative ideas to influence and improve the world at large. The appointee’s participation in advancing these goals and dedication to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging will be welcomed upon joining our community.

Base salary is $70k plus benefits, with negotiation based on rank and commensurate with experience.

Carnegie Mellon School of Drama is the first drama degree-granting institution in the USA, having been est