For the past fourteen years, the Paul A. Kaplan Theatre Management Program has launched the careers of more than 500 arts administrators. While internships have been a part of MTC since 1972, the program was formalized in 1993 with an endowment grant from the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation. Past interns have credited the program with broadening their understanding of the field, cementing their desire to work in the arts, and acting as a springboard to employment.

Just one example of the program’s success is recent Company Management Intern Rachel Swan, who, at the conclusion of her season-long internship here, was offered a full-time job as the Company Manager for the Hope Summer Repertory Theatre in Michigan. Of her experience at MTC Rachel enthuses, “This is the most amazing program and I’m lucky to have been a part of it. I’ve learned invaluable amounts about theatre, arts administration, and myself. I now am confident of my abilities.”

The large number of MTC staff members who are former interns also attests to the program’s success; more than half our departments employ alumni of our internship program. While an undergraduate at Yale, Mandy Greenfield, now MTC’s Associate Artistic Director/Production, spent two summers interning in the Literary Department. Mandy recalls, “My initial training happened at MTC and my professional theatrical sensibilities and instincts were most profoundly influenced by my internship experience.”

One of the reasons that our interns are so well prepared for careers in the arts is MTC’s insistence that they function almost as junior staff; they are fully integrated into the day-to-day life of the company. Each intern is assigned to one department where they are supervised and mentored by a senior member of that department. Inter n responsibilities go beyond standard tasks like filing and copying; at MTC they also work on substantial projects such as drafting funding proposals or filling house seat orders.

Another significant and highly successful aspect of the program is the Intern Seminar series. To ensure a comprehensive overview of how a major theatre institution like MTC operates, the interns meet one morning each week with a department head who explains his or her department’s activities. The department heads also generally talk about their own career histories; their stories reinforce the idea that there is no “correct” path to a career in the arts, which encourages the interns to explore the diverse opportunities within the field.

Faces familiar to MTC crop up at arts institutions all over the country. With their heightened understanding of the field and strong skills-set, interns have transitioned from MTC to entry level jobs throughout New York City and beyond. Former interns have found employment at such diverse venues as Arena Stage, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Enertex Marketing, The Joyce Theatre, the Lark Play Development Center, Lincoln Center Theatre, Mark Morris Dance Group, Milwaukee Shakespeare, New York City Center, Roundabout Theatre Company, and the Vineyard Theatre.

Former Education Intern Greg Cooper sums up the feelings of over a decade of interns when he explains, “So many doors were opened to me because of my internship with Manhattan Theatre Club.”