The Reader Online

Merseyside Community Theatre, Alt Valley, 2010

Romeo and Juliet

The Reader Organisation, in partnership with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, Mersey Care NHS Trust, Cobalt Housing, Merseytravel,  Liverpool City Council and Liverpool PCT will be deliver a community production of Romeo and Juliet in August 2010. Full details will be announced shortly.

Please see our website for details of our previous Community Shakespeare production of The Winter’s Tale (Birkenhead Park 2008)

Applications are invited for the post of Designer for the 2010 Merseyside Community Theatre production of Romeo & Juliet.

The successful candidate will be responsible for the concept and delivery of the design, both set and costumes. You will have professional experience and be based locally, preferably with some experience of community work. You will work with the script, director, lighting and sound designers and oversee the whole creative process, ensuring that it is delivered on time and on budget. You will be working with a large team of community volunteers and willingness to work with non-professionals will be a key quality the Director and Producer will be seeking. The production will have 4 weeks rehearsal culminating in 6 performances at the end of August. You will also work on a project launch event scheduled for the end of April 2010.  Fee £3k.

Please send a letter of application and your CV to Zoe Gilling, Business Manager, The Reader Organisation. Applications must be received no later than 5.00pm Tuesday 16th March. No applications arriving after this time will be considered. Email applications are preferred: zoegilling@thereader.org.uk

Interviews will be held at The Reader Organisation offices, 19 Abercromby Square, Liverpool L69 7ZG, on the afternoon of Friday 19th March.

The Reader Organisation is seeking an exceptional individual to work on a new project in Hydebank Prison, Belfast.
We have secured funding to run a Get Into Reading pilot in two women’s prisons, one of which will be Hydebank Women’s Prison, Belfast, Northern Ireland. This is challenging and ground-breaking work and we need to find an individual who is a tremendously committed reader, who understands the comforting and possibly redemptive power of books, and who is able to share that passionate understanding with others. The successful candidate will be committed to the ethos of The Reader Organisation. We will offer specific and relevant training.

The role requires you to set up a range of Get Into Reading experiences for women in the prison – some will be one-to-one, others group sessions and to introduce a culture of shared reading into the prison. Other work may involve children/families of the women. We expect to start the project in April 2010.  We would look to develop more work in or near Belfast if the successful candidate wishes to work more hours.

You will need to undergo full vetting procedures including an enhanced CRB check.

How to apply:

Please send a full CV and a letter of application – no more than 3 sides A4 – which will show what reading means to you and how you can pass it on to others to   Jane Davis, Director of The Reader Organisation: janedavis@thereader.org.uk.

Please talk about specific reading experiences/books/poems that mean a lot to you. Tell us about your reading experience – breadth and depth. Tell us about your life experience and how that might fit you for the job. We expect most candidates will have a degree in literature, but this is not a formal requirement for the post.

Deadline for applications: 5.00pm Friday 26^th March. Please note: applications arriving after this deadline will not be considered. Please make sure your contact details include a phone number by which we can contact you if you are called for interview.

Interviews will be held on Tuesday 13^th April, Belfast (venue t.b.c.)

• Job based in Liverpool/Wirral
• Full-time – but would consider part-time
• 1 year fixed term contract (£15,000 -£18,000 p.a. pro rata)

This is a dynamic and varied job requiring you to promote, set-up, establish and facilitate weekly Get Into Reading groups in order to promote well-being and good mental health for a range of community members in both Liverpool and Wirral.  Client groups include  Carers, people living in Care Homes, people with a range of physical or mental health problems, and members of the general population who might enjoy  shared reading.

Read more about the job role and how to apply on our website.

Job Opportunity: GIR Project Worker – Wigan

The Reader Organisation has been commissioned to develop a major new social inclusion initiative by Wigan Council. You will be joining a newly established three-person team based in Wigan.

This is a dynamic and varied job requiring you to promote, set-up, establish and facilitate weekly reading groups in order to promote well-being and good mental health for adults who may have been unemployed or unable to work for some time.

Read more about the job role and how to apply on our website.

In addition to the Get Into Reading Project Worker job advertised last week, there is another job opportunity available at The Reader Organisation (TRO):

TRO Business Manager

Please follow this link for details on how to apply and for further information about the job.

The deadline for applications is 5pm, Monday 9th November.

Reminder: The deadline for the Get Into Reading Project Worker job is next Monday (2nd November). If you’d like to apply, please click here for full details about the job and how to apply.

I am: yet what I am none cares or knows…

John Clare

Job Opportunity: GIR Project Worker

This is a dynamic and varied job requiring you to set-up, establish and facilitate weekly reading groups in order to promote well-being and good mental health, mainly, but not exclusively, for adults.

Read more about the job role and how to apply on our website.

We are delighted to announce that we have two new jobs and two new internships on offer at The Reader Organisation. They are:

· Trainee GIR Project Worker (Young People)

· Reading Community Outreach Worker – Toxteth Library

· Communications Internship

· Arts Administration Internship

For more information on all of these positions, full job descriptions and details on how to apply, visit our website or call us on 0151 794 2830.

About a trillion times more interesting, moving and unforgettable than any other professional course.

That’s what one participant said of our first five-day residential course, held at Burton Manor in September 2008.

Could you introduce people from all walks of life to the power of literature?

The Reader Organisation is looking for a Training Manager to develop a programme of training which will bring about a reading revolution. We are looking for a powerfully motivated reader, probably with a degree in English literature, definitely with a strong personal relation to books, confident about passing on their enthusiasm, love and confidence to others who may be coming to serious literature for the first time. Could you make a human connection between Chaucer’s Truth and a reading group in a drug detox clinic? Can you see the contemporary value of a novel such as Wives and Daughters or of a great poem such as Paradise Lost?

Our ‘Read to Lead’ courses regularly recruit people working in mental health, libraries, social care and the criminal justice system, as well as non-professional interested parties who know that books and reading can make an enormous difference to human life.

This is a full-time post which will require you to organise your own workload and to travel regularly around the UK. You will be based in Liverpool where you will work closely with The Reader Organisation’s Director, Dr Jane Davis.

Interviews will be held on Friday 21 November 2008. Download an application pack here.

The Reader Organisation announces two exciting, creative and dynamic job opportunitites:

Liverpool Reads Coordinator

Q: How do you get thousands of Scousers to read the same book?
A: Why don’t you tell us?

Liverpool Reads is a city-wide reading initiative which gets tens of thousands of people on Merseyside reading the same book each year. Founded in 2004, Liverpool Reads has become a big fixture in Liverpool’s cultural calendar, reaching thousands of people in very diverse communities. This year we gave away 13,000 books, ran scores of local reading groups, and hosted some fabulous large-scale events.

Books are free travel passes for journeys through space and time, and it’s a brilliant, radical idea on the part of Liverpool Reads to distribute them to the people of Liverpool.
Mal Peet, Liverpool Reads Author 2008

If you think you have the energy, talent, love of literature, project management skills and administrative nous to coordinate Liverpool Reads, please get in touch now. We’d love to hear from you (details below).

Wirral Community Shakespeare Coordinator

Wirral Community Shakespeare (WCS) is a social inclusion project which has grown out of The Reader Organisation’s nationally-lauded Get into Reading project. It combines theatrical production of the highest calibre with supportive and extensive social inclusion work. In August 2008 WCS staged an open-air production of The Winter’s Tale in Birkenhead Park (involving 28 members of the local community and a small team of professionals) to critical acclaim and the joy of the Wirral population. The Reader Organisation would like to build on this event and make an annual production the culmination of a full year’s social inclusion work.

Wirral Community Shakespeare gave me the feeling of being part of something very special, like the birth of a new baby. Let’s watch it grow.
WCS cast member

If you have a love of Shakespeare and of people, and you think you have the energy, project management skills and administrative nous to coordinate Wirral Community Shakespeare, please apply (details below).

Deadline for applications for both jobs is Monday 27th October. Please contact Chris Catterall, Business Manager for an application pack: email  chriscatterall<at>thereader.org.uk or call 0151 794 2830.

You can download this information to print out. Click here for information about the Get Into reading Coordinator post or here for information about the Wirral Community Shakespeare post.