Posted January 13, 2025

"BALLADEER" COMPOSER-PERFORMER

We are hiring a “Balladeer” to write and perform original songs about migratory fish in collaboration with high school students at the New York Harbor School as part of the 15th annual Big Green Theater eco-playwriting program. This is a paid position (see payment details below).

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Big Green Theater (BGT) is an eco-playwriting program for public school students that uplifts the imaginations of young people most impacted by climate change and environmental injustices and brings their ideas to life on stage. BGT aims to inspire students to manifest a sustainable and just community by using the power of their creative voice. BGT is run by eco-theater collective Superhero Clubhouse (read about us below), in partnership with local schools, theaters, and environmental organizations.

Now in its 15th year, BGT currently takes place at the New York Harbor School, a public school on Governors Island with a marine-focused curriculum. This spring’s program will consist of weekly workshops over 4 months, as a contingent of the school’s Harbor Seals after-school club.

The focus of this year’s BGT program will be the amazing migratory fish of the Mahicantuck (Hudson River). In addition to songwriting and playwriting, students will create fish puppets under the guidance of puppeteer Greg Corbino, lead artist for Riverkeeper’s Fish Migration Celebration (see details below). Students’ work will be included as part of the Riverkeeper celebration, happening in June.

ABOUT THE POSITION

We are seeking a skilled composer-performer with experience working with teenagers to:

• Conduct three songwriting workshops with a small group of teenage students, introducing them to the basic process of songwriting and mentoring them in writing original songs.
• Collaborate* with students and their ideas to compose a series of original songs inspired by local fish species and their migration journeys up the Hudson River. We anticipate the majority of composing work will happen independently, outside of the classroom.
• Share song drafts in the classroom so that students can hear progress, share feedback, and help make adjustments in real time.
• Record demos of songs so that students can take their work home to keep and share.
• Rehearse and perform students’ songs as well as their written monologues as part of two culminating events. Performances will be held in May on Governors Island for audiences of students, faculty and families, and then again in June in Manhattan as part of Riverkeeper’s Fish Migration Celebration launch event.

*NOTE ON COLLABORATION: We expect students’ words and ideas to be prioritized in the composing process, but we also expect that the composer will bring their own ideas to the table, especially as they interpret students’ ideas through music. We anticipate that students will write the majority of lyrics and direct the genre, tone, tempo, and melodies of the songs, while the composer will refine all of these elements, make small edits to lyrics, and orchestrate the songs for whatever instrument(s) the composer plays.

The Balladeer will work most closely with BGT teaching artists Megan Paradis Hanley and Daniella De Jesus. The creative team will be supported from afar by producer Jem Pickard, co-director of Superhero Clubhouse.

PAYMENT

The Balladeer will be paid a flat fee of $2,400, which is based on an anticipated ~80 hours of work at $30/hour. A breakdown of these hours– which include ferry commute time– is below. The Balladeer will be hired as an independent contractor, and will be paid on a 1099.

IS THIS POSITION RIGHT FOR YOU?

The N.Y. Harbor School is a public high school serving all five boroughs of NYC. To best respect and reflect our student writers, we are specifically hiring a composer-performer who identifies as Black, Indigenous, or a person of color.

We are looking for someone who:

• Believes in the mission and values of Superhero Clubhouse.
• Takes inter-generational collaboration– and the ideas of young people– seriously.
• Is compassionate, communicative, patient, and flexible.

Strong candidates do not need to be well-established in their careers, but they need to possess swift and deft songwriting abilities across a diversity of musical genres, extensive experience performing music and spoken text, and have some experience working with teenagers.

*NOTE: If you are a composer who feels like a good fit for this project but you are not a performer, OR if you are a musician-performer who feels like a good fit for this project but you are not a composer, we still welcome your applications! In this case, we would hire two people and divide the fee according to hours worked.

SCHEDULE (2025)

• MARCH & APRIL
  
  • 3 songwriting workshops @ Harbor School & LMCC Arts Center (10.5 hours)
    • Wednesdays 3pm-5pm (+ ferry)
  • Independent songwriting
    • ~13 days, 3 hours/day (~40 hours)
    • We expect the composing process to be iterative: the composer will write drafts of songs independently between workshops, with student feedback influencing the work as it proceeds.
• MAY
  • 2 rehearsals for staged reading @ LMCC Arts Center (7 hours)
    • Wednesdays 3pm-5pm (+ ferry)
  • 1 staged reading day @ LMCC Arts Center & Harbor School (8 hours)
    • May TBC daytime performances  (~9:30am-4pm, + ferry)
• JUNE
  • 2 rehearsals for June performance @ LMCC Arts Center (7 hours)
    • Early June, TBD dates/times (+ ferry)
  • 1 performance day @ Manhattan TBD (8 hours)
    • Part of Riverkeeper’s Fish Migration Celebration launch event (see below)

LOCATIONS

The New York Harbor School and LMCC Arts Center are located on Governors Island, accessible by ferry from lower Manhattan. The ferry terminal is a short walk from the R train at Whitehall street or the 4 & 5 trains at Bowling Green. The ferry ride takes less than 10 minutes, but it only departs every 30 minutes (see ferry schedule here). Paid travel time is incorporated into the fee (1.5 paid hours added to each day on site), to account for the extra time needed to catch the ferry.

FINGERPRINTING

It is required by law that anyone working with students in a school must be fingerprinted by the Department of Education (DOE). If you have not already been fingerprinted by the DOE, you will need to do so before March 1. Superhero Clubhouse will pay the fees associated with the process. NOTE: Once you are fingerprinted, you can work in schools into the future without going through the process again.

ABOUT THE PRODUCERS & PARTNERS

Superhero Clubhouse creates theater to enact climate and environmental justice, cultivate hope, and inspire a thriving future. We make original performances and offer creative resources for communities and collaborators from all walks of life: students, scientists, artists, organizers, teachers, policy-makers, and more. Our artistic processes bring people together across differences and disciplines to model a regenerative society in response to the climate crisis. Our work is joyfully rooted in ecological knowledge, relationship to the land, and imagination as a powerful tool of future-building. Superhero Clubhouse is based in Lenapehoking, the occupied home of the Native Lenape people, with respect to our Shinnecock, Wampanoag, Haudenosaunee neighbors.

New York Harbor School provides students with a strong academic foundation and a continuum of work-based learning experiences that extend student learning from the school classroom into a real-world, work-related context. Our students learn to build and operate boats; spawn and harvest millions of oysters; design submersible, remotely operated vehicles; conduct real-life research; and dive underwater.  NYHS students go on trips, tour colleges, hear and learn from experts in science and industry and participate in the school’s on-going oyster restoration research program through The Billion Oyster Project.

Riverkeeper protects and restores the Hudson River from source to sea and safeguards drinking water supplies, through advocacy rooted in community partnerships, science, and law. This spring, Riverkeeper is piloting an immersive, participatory art and storytelling festival called Fish Migration Celebration: A Puppet Procession for the River. “The annual migration of fish up the Hudson River is miraculous and awe-inspiring, but largely goes unnoticed in our communities, even as the river is teeming with life. Through a community-led procession of giant fish puppets on water and land, we will transform the ‘invisible’ migration of river fish into a visible and celebrated cultural event.”

TO APPLY

Please send an email to producer Jem Pickard (they/them) at jem@superheroclubhouse.org. The email should contain:

1. A short video recording (no more than 2 minutes) of you playing an instrument of choice and singing an original song that you have composed. You may send a link or a file. This video does not need to be high quality, and your performance does not need to be well-rehearsed. Please do not spend too much time on this video, or record too many takes. We understand that job applications can be very time consuming and are also unpaid labor. We are not asking for a polished product; simply to see you perform and hear a song that you have written, in order to understand if your art and this project are the right fit for each other.
   • If you are a composer who is not a performer, please send a link of someone else performing one of your songs.
   • If you are a performer who is not a composer, please send a link of you playing an instrument of choice and singing someone else’s song.
2. A resume.
3. One paragraph (written in the body of the email) describing why you are applying for this position.

Applications from strong candidates will be shared with teaching artists Megan Paradis Hanley and Daniella De Jesus. Hiring will be decided collaboratively by Jem, Megan, and Daniella, with input from Superhero Clubhouse Core Members and Board Members, if needed.

Questions can be directed to Jem.

 

Thanks for your interest in working with us!

 

Superhero Clubhouse, a 501c3 non-profit service organization, is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discriminatory employment actions against, and treatment of employees and applicants for employment based on actual or perceived race, color, national origin, citizenship status, religion or creed, gender identity, disability, age, military status, prior record of arrest or conviction, marital status, partnership status, genetic information or predisposing genetic characteristic, sexual orientation, status as a victim or witness of domestic violence, sex offenses or stalking, unemployment status, or any other status protected by the law.