That said, I still want to dedicate this week's posts to the memories made and lessons learned during my two years in Seattle, starting with the reason I moved out in the first place, my internship in the education department at Seattle Repertory Theatre.
After an absolutely hellish year in a DC theatre internship (more on that another day), you would think that the last thing on earth I would want to do would be to take on yet another yearlong internship. But at the time, a second internship year felt like one of the only ways to get experience in theater, and Seattle Rep sounded like a dream company to work for. They'd won a Tony Award for regional theatre and had a great season of professional shows to look forward to, including co-productions of the 39 Steps with La Jolla Playhouse and Equivocation with Oregon Shakespeare. And their education department, where I would be working, was doing some really exciting stuff that I was going to have the opportunity to be involved in: training teachers with a nationally recognized program called Bringing Theatre into the Classroom, running a student playwriting program, and teaching an elective drama class at an alternative high school. The internship stipend was meager, but I would have Mondays off and could get a second job to help ease the burden.
So I decided to go for it...
Over the years, I have noticed that most theater companies take one of two approaches to internship programs:
1. They treat their interns like cheap labor, expect them to work unreasonable hours and generally dump all of the soul-sucking grunt-work of the organization upon their underpaid, overworked shoulders,
2. They view their internship program as a way to continue the education of recent college graduates and cultivate a bright new generation of theatre artists and administrators. Companies who take this approach value their interns' dedication and ideas and focus on providing mentorship and support to these poor, hungry, creative young people.
There has been some changeover at SRT, so I cannot speak for the state of their internship program these days, but fortunately, in 2009, Seattle Rep's view of interns fell under the second category.
Though we only made $200 a week, interns were constantly being thanked for their hard work with coffee dates, free food, overpaid babysitting jobs, etc. At Thanksgiving, the company even hosted an annual intern food drive, where we were all sent home with huge boxes of non-perishable food items, beer, and wine.
Yes, I still qualified for (and took advantage of) food stamps that year. But what I lacked in money, I made up for in life and work experience. I saw incredible theater on our stages almost every week. (A one man journey through The Iliad and an anniversary production of August Wilson's Fences still count among my all-time favorite productions.) I met brilliant designers, directors, and performers, whose work I find myself referencing in my classes even now. I gained mentors, brilliant teaching artists and arts education advocates, whose lives remain an inspiration to me. I wrote curriculum and taught workshops to hundreds of students in dozens of classrooms across western Washington. I directed student written original plays and helped produce a festival of one acts. I assisted with teacher training, discovering and wrapping my head around the concept of arts integration for the very first time. I moonlighted as a house manager and picked up one of the best friends I could have asked for, bonding over music, pop culture, and foodie-ness while waiting for audiences to go home.
I had no connection to Seattle Rep when I first moved west. But by the time I left, it felt like a second home. Though many of my friends from the Rep have now gone elsewhere, the company will always hold a special place in my heart as my first professional home.
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