August 27, 2015Jessica Cerullo

Exciting Internship Opportunity with the Center for Performance & Civic Practice

Center For Performance and Civic Practice founder, Michael Rohd

Announcing THE COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS INTERNSHIP for Harper Joy Theatre’s Spring production of How the End Poverty in 90 Minutes (with 99 people you may or may not know)

There are two year-long paid internships are available for Whitman students with the Center for Performance and Civic Practice (CPCP) and Sojourn Theater. A collaboration between Whitman’s SEC and the Department of Theater and Dance, this internship offers a total of 90 working hours over the course of the 2015-2016 academic year. To apply for the internship you must be able to work in both the Fall and Spring semester.

Download Application here: Community Partnerships Internship Application

About the Show

How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes is not a play; it is not a lecture; it is not an interactive workshop; it is not a physical theatre piece; it is not a public conversation… it is all of these things. Most significantly, it’s an opportunity to challenge a different audience every show with the question: how do you attack the problem of poverty in America, with a lens specifically focused on your community. Over the course of 90 minutes, the audience will listen, explore and ultimately choose how to spend $1,000 cash from ticket sales sitting onstage at each performance. The show is an experiment in dialogue, in collective decision-making, in shared responsibility, and in the potential for art to help us make our world a better place. Spectacularly eclectic in form, often delightful and occasionally uncomfortable, How to End Poverty engages audiences alongside community experts from the Walla Walla community.

About the Community Partnerships Internship

There are four layers of partnership that comprise the engagement work surrounding How to End Poverty (HTEP): bringing in experts, securing beneficiaries, audience design, and engaging cameo performers from the Walla Walla community. Though these are distinct ways in which HTEP works to engage the surrounding community and stakeholders, these layers are inherently interconnected, as many partners may be able to connect with the HTEP process through multiple layers of partnership. This position will work to ensure that the conversations that happen in the show are as complicated as the issues at hand through forming relationships with people and groups that are regularly dealing with and thinking about issues of poverty, and bringing these people to the process of making and performing HTEP.

Requirements of Applicants

  • Interest or experience in community engagement/outreach
  • Interest in or knowledge about the Walla Walla community
  • Comfort talking with strangers and explaining the show to a variety of people/groups
  • Ability or willingness to travel to off-site meetings with partners
  • Attendance of public lecture/event by Michael Rohd and Danielle Littman Thursday, October 15 4-6:30 p.m. followed by an informal dinner discussion.
  • Training sessions with Danielle Littman Friday, October 16 and Monday, October 20.
  • Ability to attend 3 of the 6 performances of Whitman’s HTEP production April 13-17, 2016 and some rehearsals in the preceding 5 weeks.
  • Attendance at an orientation meeting with the SEC in late September.
  • This year-long internship requires that you work in both the Fall and Spring semester.

Hours + Pay

Fall: October 2015 – Thanksgiving break. No work after Thanksgiving.

5 hours per week for 7 weeks

Spring: January 25 – April 24

5 hours per week for 11 weeks in the Spring.

$11 per hour. Hours from the fall will not roll over into the spring.

Questions

Questions about the internship can be directed to the Community Partnerships Internship Co-Supervisor, Professor Jessica Cerullo at cerullja@whitman.edu, 509 527-5163.

Application deadline, September 18, 2015.

Download Application here: Community Partnerships Internship Application