Do You Yearn to Intern?
Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on November 30th, 2007 |
We just snapped this shot of eleven of the thirteen ‘07-’08 McCarter interns for an ad announcing next year’s internship openings (it’ll run in the Me, Myself & I program, so keep an eye out for our smiling faces therein!). Which reminded me that it’s been a while since I last wrote about Life As An Intern. Mostly because I’ve been rather caught up in, well, Life As An Intern. As I mentioned in some of my previous posts, things can get pretty busy around the McCarter offices. But there are numerous learning opportunities, and lots of fun times to be had as well.
If you’re a regular blog reader, or if you’ve been clicking around on the shameless links to my previous posts scattered throughout this one, you’ve probably read plenty about my assorted tasks and experiences as a literary intern here at McCarter. But I thought I’d fill our curious blog readers in on some more general details about the overall internship process at our fair theater.
As I mentioned, there are thirteen interns in total at McCarter this season. There’s (from top to bottom in the photo) Michael in casting, Heather in stage management, Alexis in directing, Raegan in development, Heather in company management, Colleen in marketing, Sarah in costumes, Kim in education stage management, Rachel in education, Tim in general management, and me in literary management, along with (not pictured) Erin in house management and Marisol in directing.
Most of us live in one of the four intern apartments provided by the theater, which are pretty cozy. Although we’re all busy and have very different schedules (depending on whether we’re working in production on a show or in the administrative offices) we do manage to spend time together outside of work every once in a while for a movie night or an evening out (or a fabulous Halloween extravaganza!). We’re even planning some sort of intern-driven theater project for later in the year, but it’s still in the discussion phase, so details on that will have to wait until later. It should be pretty cool, though, because we’ve got a very dynamic collection of interns this year, with a vast assortment of theatrical talents—so stay tuned.
We come from all over the country—from California to Texas to Michigan to New York to right here in little ol’ Princeton. Some of us have been doing theater all our lives; others have come to the field more recently. Some of us are fresh out of undergrad, some are in grad school, and some of us have been out of school for quite some time. Some are using this internship as a springboard into a burgeoning theatrical career, others are applying for Ph.D. programs in Anthropology (which is a whole lot of work, let me tell you…). But there’s one thing that all of us have in common, and that’s an appreciation for McCarter Theatre and everything we’re getting out of this internship process. There really is so much to learn, and so many fabulous people to learn it from—since in my experience McCarter attracts, from interns to production members to staff to artists, consistently brilliant and incredibly friendly people in all capacities. And McCarter treats its interns so well, they often stick around for years afterwards. I can’t tell you how many people who are now regular staff members have revealed that they started out as a McCarter intern in one department or another. Even the blog’s own Adam Immerwahr was an intern years ago—and just look at him now!
So, what about you? Do you yearn to intern? If so, keep an eye out for that ad I mentioned earlier. There’s a new crop of McCarter interns every year. Who knows—next year, it could be you!
Posted by Elizabeth Edwards, Literary Intern at McCarter Theatre
