At The Essentials, we’re proud of our reputation for artistic collaboration. We extend that spirit into the internship program. For us, a successful internship should not only provide the company with a smart, competent new collaborator to do essential work, it should also provide the intern with an intellectually challenging experience that is engaging and rewarding. And fun.
The Essentials Internship is an intense, serious and highly individualized 25-30 hour/week, work program where interns bring their skills and talents and participate in all aspects of creating Off Broadway theater. Interns work with the Artistic Director in advance of the internship to custom tailor a work plan suitable for the intern’s interests and existing skill set. 20% of each intern’s time is set aside for an independent project of the intern’s choosing.
Each intern’s work plan will be custom created in advance with the Artistic Director. Far from fetching coffee, interns are expecte to do substantive work, typically this is a mixture of administrative, technical and artistic tasks. Sample assignments could include any of the following:
- Writing grant applications and cover letters, blog, email and Facebook copy, reading script submissions and writing up reader reports. During production periods, interns might write up rehearsal reports and keep track of script edits.
- Researching and reporting on funders, arts education programs, other theaters in the city and around the country.
- Casting - helping schedule and organize auditions, attending and reporting on plays happening around the city, and acting as a reader at auditions.
- During production periods, interns might assist designers, stage management or General Manager at rehearsals or performance.
As an intern, you will spend 20% of your time on a project of your choosing. Applicants should propose a project that they want to work on over the course of their internship. This could be a play you’re writing, research you’re compiling, a movie you’re editing, a theater company you’re starting back at school. Your proposal should outline what you’re working on, how this time will help and what you plan on accomplishing in this timeframe. Please touch on why this internship could be relevant to your project.
- Work schedules are agreed upon in advance and are typically 25 - 30 hours week, 4 days/week.
- Start and End dates are custom tailored, but the typical internships is at least 10 weeks in length.
- Interns receive a travel stipend of $200/month.
- Interns often receive free tickets to productions at other theater companies around the city.
- Interns can participate in the intern education programs offered through the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York and in conjunction with other theater companies.
You should have a love for theater, an interest in potentially pursuing it as a career, and an outside project that you are interested in working on during the course of their internship. A sense humor is pretty crucial.
Additionally, you should fee comfortable working in a fast paced (mostly paperless) office environment that uses a lot of simple web technologies like Google Docs, WordPress, digital cameras, QuickBooks, etc. You don’t need to know how to use all these, you just have to feel comfortable learning them quickly.
Please email your resume along with a one page cover letter explaining why you’re interested in an internship with The Essentials and the project on which you’d like to work. Interns are selected on a rolling basis. Applications can be sent to: Intern@theEssentials.org
We take internships seriously - if you have questions that weren’t covered here, please ask us : Intern@theEssentials.org