I would like to begin by wholeheartedly thanking the donor of Undergraduate Experiential Learning Opportunities Support Fund for providing the opportunity for me to complete this internship. My name is Mira Reichenbach, and I am about to begin my final year of my degree in Honours Political Science and Economics, with a minor in English Literature. Throughout my time at 91丝瓜视频, I have become increasingly interested in theatre, specifically how it reflects or comments on our political landscape. Having participated in and studied theatre, I chose this internship so that I could explore this area that has become so personally fulfilling and intellectually fascinating in a professional context.
Infinith茅芒tre was an incredible company, with an excellent work environment and a mission I was inspired by. They develop, produce, promote and often publish plays by Quebec artists, and support emerging artists through their Artists-in-Residence program. Assisting on this publishing front was my primary task. I managed the proofreading and interior formatting of two scripts, liaised with the playwrights, graphic designers and the print company, and had two hard-copy proofs by the end of my internship. I also did some more general office work, including managing the social media and graphics, writing newsletters, transcribing interviews and assistant judging for Infinith茅芒tre鈥檚 teen playwrighting competition.
A graphic created by Mira that was used in this year鈥檚 FRINGE guide.
I was delighted to be able to put my academic skills, especially those developed through my studies of Political Science and English Literature, to practical use. Language use and analysis, fundamental to both these fields, was a crucial part of job and a skill I found especially helpful when I was writing blurbs, proofreading, and judging the competition. I have learned to use the coding language R in Political Sciences classes, which made it much easier to familiarise myself with the two new software I learned for the publishing work, Scrivner and InDesign. More abstractly, my Political Science degree has given me a specific view of the world and of art 鈥� I believe each piece holds a potential political purpose in how it houses a cacophony of opinions. This mindset helped me develop every piece of advice I gave, every opinion I offered, and every question I asked regarding the plays I worked on.
A picture of an interview transcription, related to the new production that will go up in winter.
My most memorable highlights outside of the general collaborative and creative work environment was a graphic I made being used in the Fringe guide this year, and receiving the hardcopies of the proofs that I had brought to fruition. It felt like, though it was only a 10-week internship, I had helped create something lasting. They were a result of many hours of detail-oriented reading and editing, many debates over specific language choices and many hours of pulling together pieces of creative and legal information. This was challenging, because I had to familiarise myself with an entirely new field, while learning new software and adapting to a bilingual work environment as someone whose French is weak. That being said, my greatest challenge was learning to trust my own work and results. I felt very supported in all these endeavours, and I overcame these challenges with practice and conscious attention to building confidence, where I forced myself to only ask for help and validation only on subjects with which I was unfamiliar. In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed remembering the process of learning a new software (research and trial and error is key) and broadening my French capabilities by translating emails and blurbs and playwright bios.
The proofs that were printed of the two plays Mira was working on, soon to be published
This internship has given me an invaluable insight into the arts; how funding, publishing, and performances are pulled together, how the community interacts at different touchpoints and most importantly what it takes to really produce a piece of theatre on the page or the stage. Having completed the internship, I have a much better understanding of the artistic professional world as a whole and can picture myself slotting into parts of it I hadn鈥檛 previously known existed. More personally, it has given me experience working in small, collaborative, project-oriented teams, giving me communication abilities and a very positive outlook I can take into any profession.
Participating in this internship would have been completely impossible for me were it not for the Undergraduate Experiential Learning Opportunities Support Fund. I am endlessly grateful; this was overall a really wonderful and rewarding experience, and an amazing opportunity. Thank you.
