High School Intern Final Reflections

First and foremost I would like to thank the American Repertory Theater for this two week highly informative and influential experience.

In these two weeks at the theater I had a brief glimpse at all the time and effort needed for planning and running shows at a theater. The staff of the American Repertory Theater along with being really creative have extreme dedication to their work, a dedication that I hope to model in my own career in theater. Although my direct objective is to become a writer/actor, my time spent in all the departments of the theater have given me astounding preparation in the playwright medium. I was able to read and dissect two plays and had the honor to talk with playwright Suzan-Lori Parks when planning which themes from her play to exhibit in the lobby.

Brendan Shea of the Education department also ensured that I had the opportunity to witness acting, during tech-week for Bride*Widow*Hag. From this experience I could witness the creative process in which the actors collaborated with the tech support to perfect the play for an audience to view. I also was able to sit in on acting classes such as those for stage-combat. From these experiences I have extracted valuable lessons of theater and storytelling which is in order to create a more realistic story one has to be explicit in certain areas, whether this means having the characters fight out their rage or to have a character suffer a cruel fate, all this is necessary for a compelling story.

Through the theater’s work on Father Comes Home From The Wars I was given a first hand look at the material playwrights and theaters collaborate on to not only deliver a story but the message it holds. My first impression of this play was that it was initially just another story about the struggle of racism; but through re-analyzing the text and talking to Suzan-Lori Parks I was able to deduct the work’s true purpose—which I leave up to you to find out.

Once again I thank Brendan Shea and the staff of the American Repertory Theater for allowing me to collaborate with their work while learning from it in the process. These were an amazing two weeks and a sneak peek at the world I wish to grow up into.