November 21, 2015
Q: Has this experience been a rewarding one for you? Why or why not? How has the reality of your internship matched or contrasted with your expectations? What is the most important learning you did during your internship?
A:
For the past few weeks I’ve been working on Pippin here at the Denver Center, and things have been so hectic that I’ve hardly had a moment to step back and let things settle. Being able to work on a show like Pippin was something that I wanted to gain from this internship, and making the show happen was one of the best things that I’ve done here.
Leaving something on a strong note can be something that makes the most lasting and effective impression of an experience. These last few weeks have been fulfilling, but I have to look at my entire experience objectively as a whole to evaluate it. I’ve had my ups and downs here: I’ve been able to work events and help create things, but in most scenarios I’ve dealt with pretty mundane tasks.
At the Denver Center I’ve met a lot of great people and had good experiences, but I’m ready for something new. In practically everything I do I eventually find myself bored or knowing that there’s something else out there for me. I’m grateful for every opportunity I’ve been given here, and now that I have more experience in an environment like this I’ll hopefully be set to fall into a position that’s more than an internship.
November 15, 2015
Q: What have you seen or experienced in your internship that has inspired you the most on your own artistic journey? Has this experience changed your artistic ambitions? How?
A:
I heard about this internship during opening day of the play I had been working on. At that time I thought that I was destined to go into theatre, that I would study it in college and become a successful lighting designer. Or something of that sort. I was at the peak of theatre hype.
As Old Bill put it, these violent delights have violent ends. I loved theatre passionately, and as with all things the shine wore off and I realized that I didn’t love theatre so much as I loved the loving of theatre.
Fast forward to this semester. Going into my internship I knew this field wasn’t the field that I would go into. I was already declaring an English major on my college applications, I knew my path and I knew that what I would be doing in my internship didn’t exactly fall into it. Having had this sense of direction, it’s hard to say that my time at the Denver Center influenced my future as a writer. If anything, I can say that I was able to learn to appreciate theatre more literarily by having easier access to theatrical literature and live performances.
One important realization I came to was that this type of environment may not be the right one for me. Although art was happening all around me I felt utterly disconnected from it. I grew weary of being in one place and doing simple tasks that didn’t seem to have any positive effect. I want to be able to put my work toward a product that I’m happy with, that I can put my soul into and know that it’s making a difference to someone. Sometimes the Denver Center offered this to me and sometimes it didn’t; the times it didn’t brought about these suspicions, and the times it did only confirmed them. I’m thankful that I was able to experience this unease, and now know that I want to move onto something where that unease does not exist.
November 6, 2015
Q: What is the difference between working on personal art projects and working in a creative business? What have you learned about working in a creative business?
A:
When I came into this internship I expected to be working with the productions that go on at the Denver Center, working backstage or helping with set construction. From my first day in the office I realized that that’s not the kind of work that I’m involved in in the education department. The creativity that happens in my department is restricted to the classes we put on, and my role (and the roles of many people in my office) is to put these things together so they can be enjoyed by people who take the classes.
The difference between working on my own projects and working in a creative business is that the people working in a creative business do not get to enjoy what the business represents. It’s not like the people in my office get to act or teach every day, but they’re the ones who make it possible for others.
It’s through this that I have learned about compromise and to stay humble. Not everybody here is able to combine what they love with their job, but they all know that they help this business function so other people can learn and enjoy the things that we create. And it’s not as though the people here are utterly bound to soul-sucking 9-to-5 office work, but soul-sucking 9-to-5 office work is the majority of their reality, and they know that although they’d rather be onstage they have more important things to do.
October 30, 2015
Q: How do people at work treat you? How does it make you feel? If you have an intern one day will you treat them the same?
A:
All of the people in my office are kind and welcoming, and I feel at ease whenever I am around them. For instance, I saw two of my coworkers last weekend at DSA’s production of Spring Awakening and they invited me to talk to them after the show. It was nice that they made the gesture of talking to me since it’s not necessary for them to talk to me outside of work or of things not related to work.
Most of the work that I do here doesn’t involve much collaboration and I’m working alone most of the time, so I don’t have much interaction with most of my coworkers besides passing them in hallways. My natural instinct is to keep to myself, and although I dread small talk I do my best to strike up conversations with them when the situation presents itself.
My relationship with Stuart is grand as always. He’s been out of the office off-and-on for Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, but the season just ended so he’s going to be in the office on a regular basis. This means that I’ll be working on more tasks that are related to his work, rather than the ongoing tasks I’ve been working on like organizing the booth or checking on studios. Hopefully I’ll be working with him more and less on my own and I’ll get to know more about him, or at least learn more about the work that I’m doing.
If the situation ever comes around where I would need an intern I would do whatever I could to make them feel comfortable. Being in a new environment with new people is intimidating, but I’ve learned from the people around me that with the right amount of camaraderie anyone can be comfortable in an off-putting situation.
October 28, 2015
Q: How is your internship project going? Describe the progress of your project. How did the conversation about your project go with your sponsor? Did they have good insights into how to improve or expand the project? How does your project bridge what you do at your internship and what you like to create for yourself? Has your relationship with your sponsor evolved as you have engaged in a creative dialogue about your project? Are there any challenges you are experiencing planning or doing your project?
A:
For my project I wanted to combine writing with theatre, and when I mentioned this to Nate he said that I should write a play. The idea seemed so grand and daunting at first, but it attracted me more and more as I entertained the notion. Since the end of September I’ve been meeting with Jannett and Patrick, who have given me guidance through the process of creating a plot.
As I mentioned the idea was practically terrifying, and I felt pretty awkward at the beginning of the process because playwriting is a completely new territory for me. I had a faint idea of what I wanted the play to be, but I had an immense amount of trouble formulating a plot. However a few weeks into our meetings Patrick told me, and I’m paraphrasing here, that “once you have the characters they start writing the story for you. You lose control of them.” I began to eagerly wait for this moment to arrive.
Then one Tuesday I was sitting in the coffee shop I frequent (kind of cliche and pretentious, I know) and I noticed a piano tinkling in the background, and I thought it would be a good idea for one of my characters to play piano. Somehow an entire person was forming around this one trait, and then other characters began to form around that one. I found the miscellaneous things I wanted from my plot intersecting in ways I could have never forced them to.
One problem I’m having is with the actual writing of the story. I think a reason for this is that I have a high standard set for myself. I see these masterpieces that have already been created and I want my work to make the same mark that they have. My thoughts have never perfectly translated onto paper, so it’s easy to doubt myself without realizing that I’m at the very bottom of the totem pole and that I’ll get better if I keep at it. For now I can look up to my role models but I must remember to stay humble and to learn.
Although I’m only at the beginning stages I’m enjoying mapping this uncharted territory and I’m looking forward to the end result, whatever it may be.
October 19, 2015
Q: How do you feel like your internship is going so far? Are you forming good relationships with your co-workers? What can you do to improve your experience?
A:
Through the past month of working at DCPA, I’ve learned more than I could imagine in such a unique environment. That being said, although I enjoy the work I do at DCPA, it’s hard to say that it feels valuable on a deeper level. It doesn’t feel like I have any set responsibility or contribution in this workplace, but more that I’m doing surface-level and random tasks.
I think the reason I feel a disconnect from this workplace is because I’m not working here full-time, so I don’t really get to put my best self into the work that I do. I enjoy the company of my coworkers, but apart from Stuart I don’t feel like I have a very strong bond with them. I don’t have a permanent position here and my work doesn’t exactly have a theme, so there’s not much room for collaboration with them where I can get to know them better. Granted the fact that I’m not the most outgoing it probably wouldn’t hurt to put myself out there, but I’m not sure in what situations that is possible.
Now, I don’t mean to paint the people at DCPA as cold or unappreciative. Everybody is welcoming and they do whatever they can to accommodate me. I just think that being an intern can have some setbacks in how I view my workplace because I’m more here to assist people in odd jobs rather than having a crucial role here. I think the thing that I can do to improve my experience the most is to keep my head up and try to find meaning in my work no matter how mundane it can get. Internships aren’t supposed to be glamorous, I know that, and I know that the experience I gain here will set me up for some form of success in the future so I can eventually find that feeling of importance in whatever workplace I end up in in the future.
October 11, 2015
Q: What are you responsible for at your workplace? What do you think is your main contribution to your work site?
A:
It feels strange to try to categorize my work at DCPA into one broader genre of what I’m responsible for, mostly because my jobs are kind of all over the place. One day I’m organizing a props closet, the next I’m arranging posters, and later that week I’m doing detail painting in a studio. If I were to tie these things together, I would say that the thing that my responsibilities have in common is that they’re little details, but without them things just wouldn’t quite feel right.
In many scenarios at my workplace I’m an assistant of sorts to Stuart; Stuart does practically all of the behind-the-scenes work in the education department, from setting up studios for classes to running events. If I don’t do the rudimentary tasks that Stuart assigns me then Stuart has to do them himself, which in turn slows him down. As I’ve previously stated, I help the smaller things get finished so the bigger things are focused on first, and thus I help propel the workplace.
In addition I am also responsible for being knowledgeable about all sorts of things I didn’t know about. I’ve learned about hardware, researched knots, and developed my critical thinking skills and intuition. These help Stuart because he has to spend less time explaining things to me, and my new-found knowledge allows me to take initiative instead of having to go back to his office several times to ask about every little detail related to tasks at hand.
Through the responsibilities I’ve been given I’ve learned how to function in this workplace and work more independently. I know who to talk to, things to get done, and things that I can do to improve this workplace even when nobody asks me to do them.
October 7, 2015
This isn’t an official blog post but I want to let it be known that I walked past IDINA MENZEL in front of DCPA today. For those who don’t know, Idina Menzel is a really big name in theatre and was in RENT, Wicked, and If/ Then, which opened last night at DCPA and is the reason she is in Denver. But I SAW HER. I shared a GLANCE with her when we walked past each other. I work in the same theatre complex that legitimate celebrities perform in??? What? Yes.
October 2, 2015
Q: How do your actions affect your workplace? Do you contribute positively? How do your co-workers’ actions affect your internship?
A:
October has come, and as autumn is settling in I feel myself falling into place at DCPA as well. Over the past month this workplace has become more and more familiar to me and I don’t feel as much like an outsider. As I get to know more and more people they feel more comfortable giving me things to work on, and while extra workloads aren’t always welcome they make me feel like I have more of a purpose here. In a lot of cases I help people with things they need to get done but don’t have the time to do.
While these tasks can seem pretty basic, if I weren’t doing them then someone else would be. Since I’m here to do these things it relieves stress on my coworkers’ parts and lets them get ahead of their work and do the most important things that help this company function. So, in a way, I’m helping the company move forward by making it more efficient, letting the important people finish the important work while I take care of the little details.
One thing that surprised me this week was that people actually care about me here. For my internship-inspired project I plan on writing a play, and last week I proposed the idea to Stuart. Stuart directed me to Jannett, who teaches playwriting classes and is a writer herself. When I talked to Jannett I had only planned on asking her some advice on forming a plot, but when I proposed the idea to her she got excited and wanted to help me throughout the entire writing process. Earlier this week I met with her and Patrick and I explained my vision for the project. What surprised me was their enthusiasm; it seemed less like they were doing this because they had to and more that they wanted to see me succeed and help me in any way that they could.
Although at times it seems like I don’t have too much of an effect at DCPA, my coworkers have a huge effect on me. They do everything they can to make me feel included and like I have a place here, not like I’m somebody that can be replaced without anybody noticing.
September 25, 2015
Q: What was the best thing that happened this week at your internship? How did it make you feel?
A:
This Thursday I didn’t have school because juniors were taking the pre ACT. Ah, the liberty of the ever-rare day off from school! The endless possibilities! What was I going to do with this new-found freedom? The answer: seven and a half hours working an event for DCPA entitled ‘Shakespeare in the Parking Lot’.
The theory behind Shakespeare in the Parking Lot is that because many schools don’t have the time or money to send their students on field trips to see theatrical productions, theatre is brought to the schools instead. It features a version of Romeo and Juliet abridged down to 45 minutes, with modern-day dress and a set consisting only of a beat-down pickup truck.
I started out the day by heading down to the intersection of 16th and Champa, in the fair alleyway where we lay our scene, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. I first set my sights on Max, who’d been hired to work for the upcoming events. While we waited for Stuart, my sponsor, to arrive we discussed where we’re from, the fact that it’s so cool that I’m doing this internship when I’m still in high school, the like.
It was midway through setting up when the actors arrived. The actors! The esteemed performers for whom we serve. They began to rehearse for the performance, going through the moves and adjusting to the alleyway. As they progressed something became clear to me: these people were cool. Sure, they were brilliant actors, but the people they revealed themselves to be between the scenes were people that I became drawn to, people that I wanted to get to know.
There was one moment in the day that probably shaped this experience the most. It was in the middle of a rehearsal, and the sun was beginning to descend in the sky. As it fell it cast a brilliant backlight on the scene, and the sun-kissed sight seemed to be taken straight from Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (notice any other similarities?). The surroundings were already near perfection, with the theatrical aspects combined with the culture of downtown Denver, but this moment was overwhelmingly magical. I was awestruck.
Despite the magnificent things I had seen throughout the day, I couldn’t help but feel a bit small and removed compared with the people around me. They all had so much experience and all knew the moves of how things worked, whereas I was clueless on what steps to take. For the first time in my internship I felt like people saw me as The Intern, someone inexperienced and disposable. I guess I’m not supposed to be seen as someone with tons of experience because that’s not my reality yet, and I know that respect is something to be earned and not gained.
Although I had some feelings of doubt throughout the day, I am very grateful that I got this opportunity. I’ve already heard stories from other interns about doing mostly desk work and not doing anything outside of the office, so having any opportunity at all to experience something creative in my internship is something to be grateful about. I can tell that these opportunities will be seldom and that it won’t be every day I get to experience something so exciting, but here’s to hoping!
September 21, 2015
Q: What did you learn from your first week at your internship? Did anything surprise you? Who did you meet and what do they do? Did you engage in any code switching?
A:
When you work in technical theatre, you’re constantly aware of what’s going on. You’ve seen things progress from their inception into a full-blown performance. Being in this type of position, it can be frustrating when the audience only sees the final result without appreciating all of the hard work that created the masterpiece.
Ironically, despite being so familiar with this routine, it became clear to me throughout my first week at DCPA that I had viewed this workspace through an audience’s perspective. As my days progressed I found myself performing tasks that seemed tedious and not befitting to the initial impression I had of the work I would be doing. These tasks included, but are not limited to: doing laundry, cutting boards to display a poster, and unpacking new chairs. Although I didn’t really want to do these tasks I soon realized that if they would not be completed, the end result wouldn’t exist (a concept I am all too familiar with). When I started the week I realized that I had taken the end results that I had seen for granted, and these dreary duties seemed to have gained at least a bit of value.
Now, my hopes for contributing the skills I already have were not completely fruitless; I also was able to help run sound and lights for two events. On my first day I ran sound for a class taking place, which was a completely new experience for me since I’ve never done anything with sound. This only consisted of muting and unmuting a speaker on stage, but was a learning experience nonetheless. At the end of the week I ran lights for a convention, so it was refreshing to end the week by using the skills I have.
Working in a theatre education center, the entire staff has one thing in common: theatre. Because of this I was already comfortable going into this workplace, since I knew I would have something to talk about with everybody there. Thus I was not surprised to find that I didn’t partake in much code switching. Everybody who I’ve met is relaxed and casual and I didn’t feel the need to put up a facade around them. However, although I didn’t feel the need to code switch, I was able to experience the… inversion of code switching, if you will, during my first day.
The class that I ran sound for was a class held for teachers in Denver. In this class the teachers had to go through different activities that seemed, well… like things teachers wouldn’t normally do. They had to create strange gestures, figure things out without speaking, and even move chairs around in abstract mannerisms. Truthfully, I had never seen teachers act so childlike. The teachers had relinquished their code switching mechanisms. There was no guard being put up, there was no holding back for their students like I had seen an infinite amount of times. In that moment these people were truly genuine.
It is one of my greatest hopes in this internship to form a balance between being genuine and being valuable in this workplace. I hope to be insightful, creative, and to contribute as much as I can without sacrificing parts of myself along the way. I already can feel my own place forming at DCPA, like a circle of people widening so I can join in on the conversation, and hope to call this place home very soon.