Royal Ballet & Opera

You don’t have to sing or dance to work at the Royal Ballet and Opera- most of our teams are out of the spotlight but still have interesting and creative careers.

We are a producing repertory theatre company- meaning that we make the productions that are shown on our stages ourselves including all the set, costumes, props etc. A repertory company shows a cycle of work over a theatre ‘season’ re- showing older productions mixed in with new ones for a limited amount of performances- unlike some theatres that have one show in at a time.

We are one of the busiest theatres in the world, delivering more than 400 performances and around 1,350 learning events each year. We employ over 1000 permanent staff working across three sites, all enabling us to produce exceptional performances – our theatres and offices at Covent Garden, our production workshop at Thurrock, Essex and our huge store at Aberdare, Wales.

Every set, costume and prop that appears on our stages that create the spectacular worlds of the Opera and Ballet is made by our highly skilled teams; these include Draughting and Design technicians, Scenic Carpenters, Scenic Metal Workers, Scenic Artists, Props Makers, Armourers, Wig Makers and Costume Makers. Many of these teams work in the main building at Covent Garden in a warren or workshops but the huge pieces of scenery are built and painted at our workshops in Thurrock then transported up to Covent Garden in huge lorries to be put together again in the build area before they go on stage.

On the stage, teams of highly skilled people making the live shows happen; Lighting and electrics experts, sound , video and broadcast experts, stage build crews and Flys and automation engineers, stage props, costume and make-up teams.

Outside the teams directly working on our performances there is an army of people that support the people and departments making performances and keep the three buildings running.

These include Visitor Experience, Audiences and Media (Marketing and Communications), Learning and Participation, Development and Enterprises, Operations, Finance, Legal and Business Affairs, IT, Facilities and Human Resources.

We offer Apprenticeships, Work experience and job roles in all these areas. Whatever your skills and interests, there could be a theatre career pathway for you.