From the Intern’s Desk – How to Succeed in Interning WITH Really Trying

My name is Maggie, and I am a 21-year-old college student studying in Massachusetts. Having just relocated here, I was fortunate enough to find Touchstone and be able to spend most of my summer interning here. With a background in acting and arts administration, I was able to dive into many different tasks over the course of the summer. This included aiding in costume designer Mary’s responsibility of dressing the cast of Jakopa’s Punch Processional, teaching an acting and theatre session at Donegan Elementary school, running Camp Touchstone’s Camp-After-Camp, as well as helping the managing director, Lisa, with various administrative tasks such as mailings, listings and transferring files over to next season. As my time interning at Touchstone comes to an end, here is a fun look back on all of the things that helped me have such a spectacular summer here. Thanks, Touchstone!

1. Be honest about the things you do not know how to do (most things), but be willing to learn!
2. Always check the cafe to see if anyone’s there before ringing the doorbell and making Emma run down the stairs to let you in.
3. Be nice to Mary – she will help you fix the sewing mistakes you make because you learned how to sew 20 minutes ago.
4. Remember that the Letter “Z” is a difficult choice for Busy Bee, especially when teaching first graders.
5. Be very nice to Mary- she really is a goddess!
6. Before Camp Touchstone begins, try to recall all of the fun theatre games you know – Bippity Boppity Boo anyone?
7. While making puppet hands for Jakopa and his friends, don’t judge them for their lack of thumbs; they still manage to defeat The Silence!
8. Try to be very careful when transferring Young Playwrights’ Festival documents from binder to binder, everything will fall out if you don’t shut the rings!
9. Don’t be afraid to ask Lisa questions – she is also a goddess.
10. As the Camp Touchstone performance starts to come together, look back at how far both you and the campers have come.
11. When doing the annual file transfer, don’t feel bad about having to sing the alphabet song to make sure G comes before H.
12. When saying goodbye to The Touchstone family at the end of the summer, don’t forget to thank them for the awesome summer you had.