Written Job Summary
for Nicholas Barnard's Internship at Horizon Theatre Company, Atlanta, Georgia June 2002 through July 2002
Overview
The Internship at Horizon Theatre was assisting primarily with all aspects of production of Horizon's New South for the New Century Festival, which “…celebrates today's voices speaking from, for and about the South.” The goal of the festival is to build “…on the South's rich literary heritage to create stories about who we are today in the New South.” These goals were accomplished with three separate elements: two world premier mainstage productions; eight staged readings of new plays; and a week of work with young playwrights. My responsibilities spanned all these elements, but were distinct for each element.
Mainstage Production
I fulfilled the position of Assistant Stage Manager and Properties Crew Chief for Negro Dance Lesson.
My responsibilities began during my first week with Horizon. I attended all rehearsals, provided miscellaneous help to the stage manager, and assisted in ensuring that breaks required by the Actors Equity union contract were observed. In addition I began developing and reworking my running sheets for this production, which detailed the placement of all properties, scene shifts, and quick changes.
During technical rehearsals, I assisted working out all technical issues; I received and implemented notes from the production design staff. In addition during this week we held preview performances for selected audiences, for which I was on the run crew.
After the show was up and running my responsibilities for this production settled to a normal running crew position. Specifically my responsibilities were purchasing consumable properties, preparing and properly placing all properties before the show, assisting the stage manager with pre-show and intermission time calls, quick changes, and several set changes.
In addition, I was one of seven people who on a weekly basis changed the sets and properties over from Easy, the other mainstage show, to Negro Dance Lesson, and vice versa. This included moving sets, attaching lights, and moving furniture pieces.
Unfortunately during the run of this show I was forced to assist in managing a crisis caused by a crime committed against our stage manager. This included keeping my crew and actors as informed and calm as possible.
Young Playwrights Festival
My responsibilities for the Young Playwrights festival were primarily setting up spaces for use by the young playwrights, their instructors, and our audiences. This included attending to any need that a young playwright or instructor had, and anticipating and responding to needs.
Also I acted in several staged readings of young playwrights work, for audiences of the young playwrights and their families.
A significant benefit of this week was the ability during free time to attend the young playwrights master classes, and participate in them.
Staged Readings
I held the position of Stage Manager for three staged readings. For all of these readings I was responsible for setting up the space that the rehearsal was held in, timing and calling breaks, and responding to the needs of the actors, writer, and director. In addition I had to ensure that the rewrites were obtained from the playwright in advance of the start of the rehearsal to make enough copies for all involved.
During the actual readings of the plays I was responsible, again for setup, and for reading all stage directions.
Administrative Assistant
The final element of the New South Internship program was one day a week of office time. This time included working on organizing slides for marketing purposes, troubleshooting computer problems, calling actors to set up and confirm their participation in various productions, and at times assisting with transportation. This section of the internship was revealing of the inner workings of a theatre company.