Live performance on stages of every size: acting, Broadway, dance, opera, orchestras, and the stage managers, coaches, and crews who make shows run.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Artistic Director: Leads the creative vision of a theater, dance, or opera company, choosing seasons and hiring artists. Typical pay $120k.
Broadway General Manager: Runs the business of a Broadway or touring show for its producers: budgets, union contracts, theater deals, and hiring. Typical pay $150k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Broadway Performer: Sings, dances, and acts in Broadway or touring musicals under union (Actors' Equity) contracts. Typical pay $75k.
Choreographer: Creates dance routines for shows, music videos, films, tours, and competitions. Typical pay $55k.
Theater Director: Leads a play or musical, guiding actors and designers to create a production. Typical pay $60k.
Theater Producer: Raises money and assembles the team to put on a play or musical. Typical pay $100k.
Stage Manager: Runs a live show: calls every light and sound cue, and keeps rehearsals and performances on track. Typical pay $62k.
Dialect Coach: Teaches actors to speak in accents and dialects from around the world. Typical pay $70k.
Intimacy Coordinator: Choreographs intimate scenes so actors feel safe, respected, and consenting. Typical pay $70k.
Opera Singer: Sings leading or chorus roles in operas with full orchestras, without microphones. Typical pay $55k.
Orchestra Musician: Plays in a professional symphony orchestra, opera pit, or Broadway pit. Typical pay $75k.
Conductor (Music Director): Leads orchestras, choirs, or Broadway pits, shaping how the music is played. Typical pay $65k.
Technical Director (Theater): Figures out how to build and safely run the scenery for a theater's productions. Typical pay $62k.
Fly Rail Operator (Flyman): Raises and lowers scenery, curtains, and sometimes flying actors using ropes and counterweights. Typical pay $62k.
Broadway Swing: Learns several roles in a show so they can jump in for any performer who is sick or on vacation, sometimes with an hour's notice. Typical pay $80k.
Company Manager: Takes care of the business and people side of a theater company or touring show: payroll, housing, travel, and contracts. Typical pay $72k.
Master Electrician (Theater): Hangs, wires, and maintains every lighting fixture for a theater production. Typical pay $68k.
Theater Sound Designer: Designs the music, sound effects, and speaker system for plays and musicals. Typical pay $60k.
Theater Production Manager: Oversees budgets and schedules for building sets, costumes, and lighting for a theater season. Typical pay $75k.
Pit Musician: Plays in the orchestra pit for Broadway shows, tours, and musicals. Typical pay $70k.
Theater Marketing Manager: Sells tickets for theaters through ads, social media, and promotions. Typical pay $65k.
Opera Coach (Repetiteur): Coaches opera singers on music, language, and style while playing piano. Typical pay $60k.
Opera Prompter: Sits in a tiny box hidden at the front of the opera stage and murmurs the next words and cues to singers so they never lose their place. Typical pay $75k.
Orchestra Personnel Manager: Hires substitute and extra musicians, times every rehearsal break, and enforces the union contract for a symphony orchestra. Typical pay $75k.
Starter: fastest way in
Actor (Stage & Screen): Brings characters to life on stage, screen, or in commercials. Typical pay $30k.
Professional Dancer: Performs dance for ballet and modern companies, music videos, tours, cruise ships, and theme parks. Typical pay $35k.
Assistant Stage Manager: Helps the stage manager, running backstage traffic, props, and actors during shows. Typical pay $42k.
Dramaturg: A theater's research and script expert who helps develop new plays and explains a play's history. Typical pay $50k.
House Manager: Manages the audience side of a theater: ushers, lobby, seating, and emergencies. Typical pay $45k.
Box Office Manager: Runs ticket sales for a theater or venue, both online and at the window. Typical pay $44k.
Supertitle Operator: Projects translations above the stage at operas and foreign-language shows, line by line. Typical pay $40k.
Playwright: Writes plays and musical theater scripts, revising them through readings and rehearsals with theaters, and often teaches or writes for TV too. Typical pay $35k.
Community Theater Director: Directs plays and musicals with local and youth actors at community theaters and schools, running rehearsals and guiding volunteer crews. Typical pay $42k.
Acting Coach: Teaches acting classes and coaches actors for auditions and roles. Typical pay $45k.
Stage Door Manager: Guards the backstage entrance of a theater, signing in actors and crew, handling deliveries, and keeping out fans who shouldn't be there. Typical pay $45k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.