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For as long as I could remember, I was envious how many people in my major landed an

internship somewhere – it is something I was always wanted, always dreamed, and also wanted

to have for the experience while being in school. Application after application, I was beginning

to feel slightly disheartened that my searches led me nowhere and my efforts usually reached

some sort of standstill at those networking affairs. Or, even worse, was when I was unqualified

for a position because of my lack of experience. It drove me crazy because how I was supposed

to gain experience if nobody was willing to me give me a shot? How could I prove myself

otherwise? But it is like they always say though, keep trying, keeping trying no matter how tiring

it is because one day, someone will eventually answer, and sure enough they did.

My chance did not come from Rutgers. As someone who tried out that university, I felt

even more isolated and without options there despite how much they paraded their pride. They

can parade all they want and flaunt their incoming flux of money, but the students in the

communication department were bitter. With their bigger class sizes, it was difficult to network

with the right people, and eventually, I heard many students express how they would be

graduating without experience or just felt unprepared. I felt that way when I transferred to Kean.

With much smaller class sizes, I certainly got to know more people, but the more students I

became acquainted with, the more I realized how a good majority of them were able to land an

internship. I was nearing graduation, and yet I couldn’t say I landed an internship throughout my

semesters. All these tales of grandeur in their workplace made me wonder if I should just take a

class for my last semester or chance the notion of waiting on the last of my applications.

Thankfully I listened to my hopes on this one and decided to wait out the response on the

application I sent to both ComicsVerse and the Jersey City Theater Center. Imagine my surprise

that somehow, after all this waiting, after never hearing back, after having my luck really hit it
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off that I became an intern for both companies. However, for this paper, the focus will be on the

Jersey City Theater Center, who happened to answer my application prior to ComicsVerse. I

really thank the classes I took with Professor Falkowski, who really taught me how to frame

videos. Without him, I really would have pursued this internship blind. I had no prior editing

skills, I did not have a frame of reference how to record anything I see, but it was because of him

my nerves vanished within the first month because I knew I could do this. My efforts in his class

after three semesters is a testament to this – and that is what I did.

It was nerve-wracking experience to say the least. Not so much the actual work, even

though that was also nerve-wracking at first, but the interview process. Just because they

considered me, that did not mean I was completely in. However, I was not deterred. After the

interview, I heard back within the month and I did it! I got in the Jersey City Theater Center. I

was officially their intern as of October. The work environment was everything I could have

hoped for and more: relaxing, did not cause me undue stress, close to my home, and the people I

met there have been nothing but a delight and helped me orient myself to fit the needs of the

company.

My biggest appreciation for the theater is its well-rounded requirements: be able to film,

be able to market, be able to brand, and be able to speak to a lot of artists. Sure, Communications

in Film/Media may have been my major, but I needed to extend my skills elsewhere. While I

never took classes for marketing, I had a job in it but as a community health outreach worker.

Different needs, but practically the same requirements. Marketing is something I was never

interested in, but I did excel in it. I will be providing information about the theater as well and its

relationship with communication topics.

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The Jersey City Theater Center is a nonprofit arts organization that relies heavily on

donations and artist contributions to brand the company and build its name locally and to

audiences from farther cities. In order to do this, the Jersey City Theater Center manages

Merseles Studios and its larger venue White Eagle Hall. The Jersey City Theater Center aims to

promote information on current issues through art. It has a diverse array of fantastical

performances, but it also emphasizes culture, socioeconomic problems, and holds platforms to

facilitate local and national politics. For instance, the elections became paramount to the city as

they had to come to a decision on having a new mayor in office or keeping Steven Fulop for a

second term. The Jersey City Theater Center hosted the two candidates to discuss the issues in

the arts and questions were shooting left and right from the audience. These are only one of the

few things the theater is utilized for.

The Jersey City Theater Center runs in seasons and operates from September until June

as it rotates through different theme series. There are only three themes during those months, and

when it selects its theme, it provides audiences and citizens a chance to become immersed

through different visual arts mediums. In my internship, the themes were Fear, Truth, and

Resistance. Fear, Truth, and Resistance became an ensemble of dances, monologues, plays, art,

and music and then each topic gets broken down by the artists. The Jersey City Theater Center

offers an extra dimension by creating a “Safe Space” for audiences to speak with the artists in a

Talk-Back, further enriching the experience and overall immersion in the issues that revolve

around the theme on an emotional, local, and national scale.

These art shows and vibrant displays paves the way for the BOX. There’s an occasional

play or performance, but the theme draws its curtain with the BOX: a curated event featuring

poetry, music, and other elements. However, the theater does not stop there either: the Jersey
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City Theater Center offers residency programs in both dance and theater, therefore allowing

upcoming talents to debut at the theater, hone their skills and performances, and perform their

masterpieces to the next level with national and even international audiences.

The theater wants to invite younger audiences as well. The Jersey City Theater Center-

Kids specifically caters to adolescents with Puppetworks, an award-winning resident marionette

company the employs storytelling, folklore, and art history through puppetry. On a larger

platform, White Eagle Hall is a historic theater in the city and features aspects of the theater and

holds events for the BOX, Puppetworks, and its own independent performances that often bring

large audiences and big-name local musicians.

I had the privilege of interning at Jersey City Theater with remarkable people such as

Olga Levina, the Co-Founder and Artistic Director, Timothy Herrick, the Communications

Director, Dan Pieraccini, the General Manager, as well as former interns Fernando Ayres and

Bang Chau, Events Coordinator and Marketing/Design Coordinator respectfully. When I was

accepted into the internship, I was not completely aware of the performance I would witness and

the spectacular perspectives I would be offered by all these different audiences I was honored to

meet. With these themes, it provides an avenue for vulnerability: there are issues all around that

affect us and are molded into these themes. Fear of the world, Truth of problems we face,

Resisting radical change – these are some examples of many they provided me with. These open-

ended themes inspire critical thinking and community involvement, as well as community

solidary. In a time period of political turmoil and a wide divergence of opinions, the theater

actively promoted speaking your views, regardless of where they happen to align. Despite being

a democratic state, it was an eye-opening experience during Truth’s season to watch an artist
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discuss and elaborate his disapproval of former president Barack Obama and the weight his

opinions held on others to those who revered his leadership.

In the article, “A theater intervention to promote communication and disclosure of

suicidal ideation,” by Sarah N. Keller, C. Graham Austin, and Vanessa McNeill, it discusses the

high rates of suicide and the presence of theater to raise awareness and prevent such rates from

increasing. The reason why I choose this article in particular was because the theme of Fear the

theater had for the season. Fear is a complicated issue and can vary from person to person – not

everyone will possess the same fear as the person sitting next to them or across from them. It is a

fact that is easily to acknowledge but takes more to see it in action. There are things that need to

be seen for anyone to truly feel and have the topic resonate with them.

You can tell me someone’s fear, but when a safe space is created, you truly feel one. On

that day, there was a break between the performances. In that break, the moderator announced to

the audience his fear. Slowly, hands began rising. “I’m afraid of forgetting myself,” “I am afraid

of the future,” “I am afraid of what our President can and will do.” All of these are valid. There

was a true sense of community in that room. We might not have been holding hands, but we

nodded, added, and supplied our own fears of the matter.

While nobody mentioned suicide out loud, I did speak to one of the audience members

who approached me. She told me she was afraid that her friend would give up when the

moderator asked that question to everybody. It caught me off-guard, but I understand. Many

people seek the arts to express themselves where verbally they cannot or could not, and if the arts

are their outlets, then they should actively pursue it. Suicide is a real fear, and theaters, in my

opinion, especially community theaters are a manner to inspire hope.

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The article discusses about a program called Let’s Talk where awareness would be raised,

and thus promote seeking help and referrals. The article also states:

Using theater programs as a suicide-prevention tool is not new. In 1974, Jackson

and Potkay reported favorable reactions from college-aged audiences to an educational

play regarding suicide. More generally, interactive theater has long been recognized as a

tool for promoting prosocial behavior and addressing deeply-held stigma. Seeing coping

skills modeled through performance or direct interpersonal contact may give students the

confidence needed to help their peers in ways not sufficiently supported by traditional

curricula… Actors in this project were instructed to use personal experiences to

communicatively reduce audience members’ resistance to openly discussing the risk of

suicide. (Keller, Austin, & McNeill, 2017)

This reinstates the efforts the arts make to creating “Safe Spaces,” as well as the Jersey City

Theater Center. Safe Spaces can be defined as an:

…Educational metaphor that presumes the physical and psychic isolation that

students experience is reduced when they are comfortable enough to express their diverse

individualities. Within this framework, educators are challenged to create learning

environments that are free from physical threat, judgment, or verbal intimidation. (Chin,

2017)

Safe Spaces are becoming much more prominent, especially with the political climate and the

outcome it has on the nation. Education received a lot of budget cuts and plays an impact on the

resources to help people express themselves. You take that away from the equation and it
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jeopardizes the happiness and health of many. Which is why, despite there being Safe Spaces,

someone has to break the ice. Actors break the ice for people to self-disclose.

With the theme of Fear at the theater, I witnessed the moderators and performances

speaking about their fears first, regardless of how vulnerable and personal it could be. I watched

people let themselves run free and performers let everyone in on something we as society keep

hidden. Theater is about communicating, about self-expression, and this why this issue still

highlights the benefitsof a community theater and the benefit it has on performers, potential

performers, and audience goers. The Jersey City Theater Center established a true Safe Space

where you could reveal anything and everything without judgement.

The article, “Feelings, Safe Space, and LGBTQ of Color Community Arts Organizing,”

also has a similar platform to the goal of the Jersey City Theater Center, but first, some context.

For the past couple of years, we have been seeing so much protest on a global scale and the cries

of the youth. Our gun control laws are horrible because it is next to non-existent, we have the

Black Rights Matter Protest, we have panic and outrage engaging Damascus with nuclear

warfare in the name of “justice.”

As previously mentioned, Safe Spaces are becoming the biggest priorities for certain

areas to establish. We unfortunately have a vice president who is very homophobic and a

president with no political experience but enjoys goading other countries and protesters. This is

why the visual and performing arts have become the much-needed outlet in a time everyone and

everything is on edge.

There was a time when I was younger that if someone was not heterosexual, it was

scandalous. Times, wonderfully enough, have changed since. There have always been multiple

identities around—such as Trans, Genderfluid, Non-Binary, and the like—but people are
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becoming much more free and open about their sexualities and I really truly think

communication and the arts played hand-in-hand to promote such change. In the theater’s

Resistance theme, there was an artist who reminded me how easily, naturally, and freely we can

be expressive. An artist with children spoke about her two mothers and how she herself

identified as a lesbian. We are free to discuss this, for anyone to discuss this, especially in theater

that promotes discourse and public opinion.

“Musical discovery, colonialism, and the possibilities of intercultural communication

through music,” by Gavin Carfoot stated, “In this model of interculturalism, music making

presents an opportunity for forms of communication that promote empathy and obligation.”

Besides the monologue and plays, the theater offers a wide variety of musical performances both

at Merseles and at White Eagle Hall. At White Eagle Hall, I will never quite forget how

astounding it was to see a performance and music for Mexican culture and celebrating Aztec

history. I never had the privilege of seeing Latin culture integrated in mainstream media or

performances as much as I would have liked. As much as I would to see more of it, I enjoy the

moments I can have it. And that day I did and it was breathtaking. Mexican culture was

showcased wonderfully to an audience of children without shying from the authentic version of

very known folk tales. Children were just as immersed as I was. Children, adults, and someone

like myself who was just filming were struck with awe. Theater focuses on art, but it also

promotes communication, and that performance itself was communicating to everyone else of

tales, of tradition, and rituals that needed no words.

At the BOX at Merseles Studio, I saw a wide variety of people perform. Many people

sang about their past, some songs touched on the issues facing the world today, and we were all

exposed together to the message presented by the source – or, in this case, the performers. They
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were giving us a sense of obligation to be in the loop of current affairs through music and

through these profound, meaningful lyrics.

“In addition to task and social communication, audience response is an important form of

communication for community theater participants. Audience response provides evaluation of

the quality of effort” (Kramer, 2005). It is a given, but one thing I noticed is that, despite how

relatively small Jersey City is compared to other towns, we make it up with conversation,

discourse, and feedback. It is the essence of communication for there to evidently be

communication occurring. People may have enjoyed the show, but was it without the audience

and performers’ talkbacks? It was absolutely fascinating to become an observer to the facilitated

conversation between the artist and an audience member.

Kramer suggests that a lot of feedback is a sign that everything went exceptionally well.

In my time at the theater, I witnessed first-hand that our best performances had a more receptive

audience engaging with the event. It is key for audience to favor the performance and the

ensemble of the technical aspect so they can return once again. It is a main concern because as

much as there is community adoration to the arts in Jersey City, sometimes the revenue can put a

damper on things. It provides a valuable lesson on the structure of a company and how easily

something positive can be dismantled in an instant, much like other big-name theaters or any

media production companies too. Many former giants are going bankrupt or are being bought-off

or even merging, so at least I got an image how important revenue and audience satisfaction is.

The theater is in great hands though. Despite the few performances that only bring a

couple of people, there are other events hosted that certainly brings a full house to Merseles and

White Eagle Hall.

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While I would have thought I would intern at a news studio or a media’s studio, I can say

I am very happy and very content that I ended up interning for a theater instead. Regardless, I

have two internships on my belt and I could not be any more satisfied by the outcome. I gave it a

lot of thought and decided that for my Masters, I will not be pursuing Communication. Not that I

fell out of love with it, but rather I realized it is not my passion. History is my passion, but that

does not mean I am not grateful for the opportunity that was given to me.

Perhaps my experiences will align with my future, history-based endeavors, and even if it

does not, I value the time and memories at the Jersey City Theater Center. I gained such a

stronger appreciation for the arts and a stronger appreciation to the idea of local-based events. I

want to thank Kean University for providing me the platform that Rutgers failed to extend to me.

I do not regret becoming a Communications – Film/Media student; everything I gained is truly

invaluable.

I have learned so much about media, more than I would have expected to learn because

Rutgers failed me. But because they failed me, I was able to learn about Kean and give this little

university in Union a chance. I needed a chance when I was looking for an internship after all.

My graduation is drawing near and my internship days have ended – or, rather, the theater

internship ended while ComicsVerse concludes after the semester. At least now I know I am

graduating with a sense of accomplishment and did not become one of those students who

finished but never got the needed experience to go a step further.

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References

Carfoot, G. (2016). Musical discovery, colonialism, and the possibilities of intercultural

communication through music. Popular Communication, 14(3), 178-186.

doi:10.1080/15405702.2016.1193184

Chin, M. (2017). Feelings, Safe Space, and LGBTQ of Color Community Arts

Organizing. Journal Of Community Practice, 25(3/4), 391-407.

doi:10.1080/10705422.2017.1347119

Keller, S. N., Austin, C. G., & McNeill, V. (2017). A theater intervention to promote

communication and disclosure of suicidal ideation. Journal Of Applied Communication

Research, 45(3), 294-312. doi:10.1080/00909882.2017.1320569

Kramer, M. W. (2005). Communication and Social Exchange Processes in Community

Theater Groups. Journal Of Applied Communication Research, 33(2), 159-182.

doi:10.1080/00909880500045049