By Joshua Baggett
Each year in early March, dozens of New York’s non-profit theatres gather for a meet and greet with students looking to land an internship in arts administration. The annual event, hosted by the theatre advocacy organization Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (or A.R.T. for short), connects students of all backgrounds with over 50 organizations actively seeking to hire interns for a wide variety of roles. I had the chance to attend the event this year and found it to be a valuable resource for my internship search.
This year’s fair was held at Manhattan’s TKP Conference Center and was quite the happening affair. When I arrived at my scheduled time, the conference room was already near capacity and buzzed with the sound of lively conversations. Knowing it would be impossible to meet with every company, I quickly mapped out my stops and prioritized the organizations that were on my application list. My day began visiting the Signature Theatre table, followed by stops with The Public Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, and MCC Theatre. At each meeting, I was able to chat directly with those who hire interns and had the opportunity to make memorable impressions by using the personal pitch that I developed in the MSLCE program.
After completing my list of stops, I was happy to find that I still had an additional hour remaining before the end of the fair and wanted to make the best of it. I took a break to research some of the other companies and quickly discovered that there were several whose work and mission intrigued me. As someone who is inspired by playwrights and new work, I was excited to find that the fair was veritable smorgasbord of organizations that focused solely on the development of new plays. I made my way to the tables for Primary Stages, Vineyard Theatre, and Athena Theatre— where I had an exciting chat about the role of technology in theatre and how the digital age is changing how we approach theatrical storytelling.
For students looking for internships in New York, the fair offers a “one-stop shop” to meet with leaders from the city’s top organizations. With internship application season still going strong, it was beyond convenient for me to have so many companies under one roof. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have had the chance to represent Northwestern at the event and had a great time connecting with so many new professional contacts.