As of this Monday, I will have been done with my administrative internship for the American Shakespeare Center's Theatre Camp for about a week. The camp goes like this: for three weeks a session, a camper (aged 13-18) can become part of an ensemble and perform in a Shakespeare (or other Early Modern) play. From past interns, I heard of my position as administrative assistant/intern being described as the "stage manager for camp", and it's very apt. I learned a lot of helpful tips during that time.
1) Literally anyone can see/read/learn from Shakespeare
Young and old alike, the enthusiasm for the Bard was (and remains) contagious. Here I was able to interact with Shakespeare/theater/American Shakespeare Center geeks of all ages. Having spent a year in a Shakespeare-related graduate program, up until this past summer I had met plenty of scholars (usually older and tenured at a prestigious university) familiar with Shakespeare. But kids? They were akin to mythical creatures worthy of study. Now I can say that Shakespeare and love for theater is alive and well in our younger generation. It's reassuring.
2) Organization is underrated
Running a camp = a lot of paperwork. Paperwork means organization. Organization takes a lot of time to master; it is also an important skill to help ease into adulthood. Copying campers' headshots and audition info, and then formatting it all onto one document for four directors requires a good deal of organization. Well, it did for me at least. Separating things into other things (what I like to call categories) helped me get my work done and help the camp director and camp life coordinator (AKA the best bosses ever) camp run (mostly) smoothly.
3) Kids are awesome
During the past few months, I worked with some of the most hard-working, kind, caring, hilarious, generous, politically conscious, wise, and talented kids I've ever met. One kid worked in the summer as a circus clown; his portrayal of Bottom in our production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (complete with shaping balloons into objects and incredible comedic timing) left me and the rest of audiences in gut-busting, tear-inducing stitches. Another kid, who played one of the witches in our production of Macbeth (and other characters), woke up extra early every single morning to run laps on the track, no matter what the weather, mood, or humidity.
4) Take time to rest
....Especially when you've been running around a hilly college campus in 90-degree weather for about 12 hours a day every day for the past three weeks. I learned to nap when I could, where I could. Oftentimes it was at home; other times it was right in base camp (where the important paperwork was). Coffee and/or caffeinated tea was not enough to keep me going.
I'm still ruminating in the remnants of the past three months: Facebook posts, name tags, Shakespeare scansion and rhetoric bookmarks, folders, staplers, safety pins, blog posts, Google Drives, fantastically high-quality photos from performance festivals, and (for better or for worse) memories. Lots and lots of fond memories.
