The Second City
Producing Administrative Internship, Chicago, IL
Do you eat, sleep and breathe improv? Have Tina Fey and Bill Murray inspired your Screen Arts major? If so, consider hopping on as an intern for the famed sketch comedy company The Second City. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll gain some awesome resume cred.
What it’s actually like
Arguably the most exciting part of interning with The Second City comes from your opportunity to work in one of the world’s most famous commercial theater companies. “Second City is sort of singular in who it is,” said Brian Loevner, who runs the internship program. “It’s got an international brand that’s known far and wide outside of Chicago.”
Cool stuff you get to do
Second City interns work directly with a big-shot producer. Their daily tasks can range from working on marketing or budgeting to helping with auditions, castings or workshops. “It really depends on the ebb and flow of the work at Second City as to what their experience will be,” Loevner said. Interns at Second City will have an experience far different from a traditional desk job with a predictable daily routine.
What you’ll learn
In addition to working on a team with Second City’s other interns (the program currently has five interns but can have up to 10), interns get to learn the ins-and-outs of the industry from the theater professionals. “The wide variety of the work that’s going on in the building and the ability to engage with the people who create that work on a day to day basis is pretty exciting,” Loevner said. Working for a professional company such as The Second City will give you the real world experience in anything from writing scripts to marketing shows.
How to prepare for your application
Since you’ll be interning at a production company, The Second City requires that all of its interns to have been somehow involved with a production. Don’t be afraid if you haven’t received an Oscar yet, applicants who have done playwriting, stage management, musical production or really anything that contributes to a production have the green light to apply. The Second City simply wants people who are passionate about arts administration and producing.
Skills that impress them
According to Loevner, applicants who have a skill set and career trajectory that fits well with The Second City, as well as those who have a can-do attitude and are willing to tackle whatever task is thrown their way, shine in comparison to other applicants. Interns are selected based both on their individual qualifications and whether or not their skills and personalities will complement those of the other interns.
Cool perks
Interns for The Second City receive a free class in the company’s training center, as well as tickets to shows and access to seminars put on by producers and creative teams. So not only will you get schooled in the workforce, but you’ll also learn a thing or two in that familiar classroom setting.
The deets
The Second City offers internships year-round, so don’t stress out if you didn’t get your application in for this upcoming summer. Applications for the summer semester can be submitted until March 21, 2016. The internship, which is unpaid, requires at least three days of work per week and runs from May 1 to Sept. 30, although start days are flexible. You may not get a paycheck, but you’ll get a summer full of laughs.
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