This morning I saw a job posting for a position as a "research intern" on a documentary film. To me this posting captures all that is wrong with the field of dramaturgy.
The ideal intern qualifications: grad student, excellent research skills including experience with library archives, Proquest, and other online sources. Fluency in German would be ideal. Knowledge of Photoshop, FileMaker Pro, and scanners also a plus. No pay.
So the intern has to already have all the skills they need? To me, this is not an internship. This is a group looking for an unpaid collaborator. Which might or might not be reasonable depending on the budget for the project and the extent to which other collaborators are being compensated.
However, I wish that people would stop pretending that every time something is unpaid, it is therefore an "internship." This "intern" label is all over the field. It is used to secure more hands on deck for reading volumes of scripts and performing volumes of research and writing. And, sometimes, it is true that it is an actual internship in which the intern has a mentor and is actively learning the tools and tricks of the trade. I have been in two such internships, both at major regional theaters, and they were wonderful.
But often times, the "internship" essentially pulls a fully competent dramaturg into a position that is one of being a collaborator. Is there a supervisor? Yes. But any job would have a supervisor, too. When the intern is functioning basically autonomously, consulting with their supervisor the way any normal employee would, I say that calling it an internship actually degrades the future utility of the experience for the "intern."
And I know that no large theater out there will want to change this title because taking away the "intern" designation would mean they would have to pay. And when they can secure a large labor force for free, why would they want to change that?
But let's look at it from the "intern's" perspective. You work autonomously, you take on the role of project collaborator, you bring all your skills to the table (and use them). Maybe you learn something new, maybe not. And then at the end you have to put "intern" on your resume. Which leads other jobs to assume that you were NOT working autonomously, that you have little experience, that you were closely supervised, etc. (Especially jobs outside the field, which you ultimately have to look into because you can't make any money in the field.) So basically all of the work that you did as an unpaid "intern" gets cheapened.
If, by contrast, the intern title were dropped (except in the case of true internships -- with a mentor), it would help clarify that the work being done in most of these situations is solid, useful, independent work. My first summer at the Williamstown Theater Festival I was called a "literary intern," however, in reality I was functioning as a full-fledged dramaturg and as a literary assistant. AND these are titles which would look better on my resume.
We all know that the arts are struggling in this economy, and when there is a small project (like the one I saw today that is calling for the intern) the odds are that their budget isn't big enough to pay. But in that case, why not at least craft an unpaid/volunteer position with a title that reflects the complexity of the position and the skill that the person filling the position brings to the job. It just might turn into a win-win situation.
