General Manager – Joy Theater
Joy Theater | New Orleans, LA
Job Type: Full-time
Work Location: In person
Career Level: Management
Schedule: Nights, weekends, and holidays as required by the event calendar
Compensation: Competitive salary based on experience, with bonus opportunity
About the Joy Theater
Located on Canal Street in downtown New Orleans, the historic Joy Theater is a 1,200-capacity, multi-purpose entertainment venue hosting concerts, comedy, film screenings, private events, and other special events.
We are seeking an experienced General Manager with strong live-event, venue operations, and production experience to lead the theater’s business operations, financial performance, staff, and event execution.
This position is responsible for aligning production, operations, talent, marketing, food and beverage, private events, security, and guest services to deliver safe, profitable, and high-quality events.
Position Summary
The General Manager is the senior on-site leader responsible for all aspects of venue management, including:
- Financial performance and budget management
- Team leadership and staff development
- Production and event oversight
- Food and beverage operations
- Vendor and contractor management
- Facility maintenance and regulatory compliance
- Artist, promoter, client, and guest experience
The successful candidate must be comfortable moving between strategic leadership and hands-on event execution.
Strong production knowledge is essential. The General Manager must be familiar with advancing shows, reviewing technical riders, coordinating venue and tour requirements, supervising show-day operations, and working effectively with production managers, crews, vendors, artists, promoters, and tour personnel.
Key Responsibilities: Venue Leadership and Operations
- Lead the day-to-day operation of the Joy Theater.
- Maintain high operating standards across front of house, back of house, production, security, bars, and guest services.
- Establish clear performance expectations and accountability for department heads, supervisors, contractors, and event staff.
- Develop effective communication practices across all venue departments.
- Create and maintain a positive workplace culture centered on professionalism, hospitality, safety, accountability, and teamwork.
- Oversee event setup, execution, breakdown, and post-event reporting.
- Ensure each event is properly staffed, prepared, and executed in accordance with venue standards.
- Identify and implement improvements to venue operations, event workflows, and guest experience.
Production and Event Execution
- Serve as the senior venue leader responsible for supporting production planning, technical review, and show-day decision-making.
- Work closely with internal and freelance production personnel to review technical riders, stage plots, labor calls, equipment requirements, dressing-room needs, and event schedules.
- Coordinate venue readiness for concerts, comedy shows, film screenings, private rentals, and special events.
- Oversee stage, audio, lighting, video, electrical, backstage, loading, and other production-related logistics.
- Partner with talent buyers, promoters, tour managers, production managers, artists, and private-event clients to ensure event requirements are clearly communicated and properly executed.
- Troubleshoot event and production issues in real time while protecting guest safety, artist relationships, event quality, and budget expectations.
- Ensure all departments receive accurate and timely event information.
Financial and Commercial Management
- Manage the venue’s overall financial performance.
- Develop and oversee operating budgets, labor expenses, vendor costs, event expenses, and other controllable spending.
- Monitor event profitability and identify opportunities to improve operating margins.
- Review event settlements, flash reports, labor reports, and post-event performance summaries.
- Use financial and operational data to improve future event planning and decision-making.
- Collaborate with talent, marketing, private events, sponsorship, ticketing, and food and beverage teams to increase ticket revenue and ancillary income.
- Identify opportunities to improve per-person spending, private-event revenue, operational efficiency, and utilization of the venue calendar.
- Maintain appropriate financial controls and approval processes.
Staff Leadership and Development
- Recruit, onboard, train, schedule, supervise, and develop venue employees and contracted event labor.
- Provide consistent coaching, feedback, and performance management.
- Ensure managers and supervisors understand their responsibilities and are held accountable for departmental performance.
- Promote effective collaboration between production, operations, security, food and beverage, private events, marketing, and guest services.
- Support a workplace environment in which employees are treated professionally and concerns are addressed promptly and appropriately.
- Coordinate with StageRight Venues’ corporate leadership and People Operations regarding staffing, employee relations, policies, and organizational initiatives.
Vendor and Stakeholder Management
- Manage relationships with vendors, contractors, and subcontractors, including security, cleaning, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, production support, and specialty event services.
- Monitor vendor performance, service quality, contract requirements, and spending.
- Work effectively with ownership, corporate leadership, landlords, government agencies, neighborhood stakeholders, promoters, artists, and private-event clients.
- Represent the Joy Theater and StageRight Venues professionally within the New Orleans entertainment and hospitality community.
- Develop strong relationships with external partners while protecting the venue’s operational and financial interests.
Compliance, Safety, and Facility Oversight
- Ensure required permits, licenses, certificates, insurance documentation, and operational postings remain current.
- Lead compliance with safety, security, alcohol-service, life-safety, emergency-response, and venue operating procedures.
- Ensure incidents are properly documented, reported, and addressed.
- Coordinate preventative maintenance, repairs, inspections, and capital-improvement needs.
- Work with contractors and internal partners to protect the theater’s physical plant, public areas, backstage spaces, and event infrastructure.
- Serve as a lead decision-maker during emergencies, safety concerns, evacuations, and incident-response situations.
- Maintain a safe environment for employees, guests, artists, vendors, and clients.
Required Qualifications
- Five to ten or more years of venue, live-event, theater, club, hospitality, or entertainment management experience.
- Meaningful experience with concert production and live-event execution.
- Demonstrated experience operating or supervising concerts and special events in a ticketed venue, theater, club, arena, or comparable live-event environment.
- Strong working knowledge of show advancing, technical riders, labor coordination, stage operations, event settlements, and production workflows.
- Experience managing operating budgets, labor expenses, vendors, contractors, and financial reporting.
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams across operations, production, food and beverage, security, marketing, private events, and guest services.
- Strong organizational, communication, conflict-resolution, and decision-making skills.
- Ability to remain calm, professional, and decisive in a fast-paced live-event environment.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities and respond effectively to changing event requirements.
- Availability to work nights, weekends, holidays, and extended hours based on the event calendar.
- Ability to work on site at the Joy Theater in New Orleans.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience working in a 1,000- to 2,500-capacity music venue, theater, or multi-use event space.
- Familiarity with the New Orleans live-entertainment, hospitality, and special-event markets.
- Experience managing bar operations, private events, sponsorships, and ancillary revenue.
- Experience working in a historic venue or facility hosting both public and private events.
- Working knowledge of ticketing platforms, event settlements, staffing plans, labor reports, and venue-performance reporting.
- Established professional relationships within the New Orleans entertainment, production, hospitality, or vendor community.
Success in This Position
The strongest candidates will combine operational leadership, financial judgment, hospitality, and production fluency.
The successful General Manager will be comfortable leading department heads, interacting with artists and promoters, managing budgets, making real-time show decisions, and maintaining high service and safety standards in a fast-moving environment.
This individual must understand how to balance ticketed performances, private events, food and beverage operations, financial performance, and guest experience within a venue that serves as both a historic theater and a modern live-entertainment space.
Benefits
Eligible full-time employees may receive:
- Medical insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- Paid time off
- Bonus opportunity
- Access to live music and entertainment events
- Additional benefits offered in accordance with applicable company plans and policies
Benefit eligibility, coverage, and terms are governed by the applicable benefit-plan documents and company policies.
Additional Information
This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by the General Manager. It is not intended to contain a complete list of every responsibility, duty, qualification, or working condition associated with the position.
Responsibilities may be modified or assigned based on business needs, venue operations, and the event calendar.
Equal Employment Opportunity
StageRight Venues and the Joy Theater are equal opportunity employers. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.
This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including recruiting, hiring, compensation, benefits, training, promotion, transfer, discipline, and termination.
Reasonable Accommodations
StageRight Venues is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants and employees with disabilities and to complying with applicable accommodation requirements.
Applicants requiring assistance or a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process may contact [email protected].
The accommodation language reflects EEOC guidance that reasonable accommodations may apply during the application process as well as during employment.
Pay: From $1.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Flexible spending account
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
