Beyond the Classroom: Performing Arts Internships and Jobs

A theatre internship is a requirement for a BA degree in Theatre Arts.

Internships offer students opportunities for career path exploration within performing arts fields and industries. Students will experience and see what a post-graduation career in looks like and what can be expected on a daily basis. An advantage to internships is that they create potential for professional networking and references, which are at their most valuable when students begin applying and/or auditioning for jobs in this field during an exciting time when the Deaf performing arts movement has been gaining momentum nationwide.

For Theatre Arts majors, a professional internship—Field Experience (PFA 320)—is required for graduation. It is highly recommended, but not required, for minors to seek out internships. Graduates find employment in a wide range of possibilities related to theatre. Though there are no guarantees, in professional theatre especially, graduates of Gallaudet’s Theatre and Dance program have appeared on stage, television, film, off-Broadway, and regional theatres across the nation.

We encourage our students to take on at least two internships, as we fully subscribe to, and support, the idea that experience is the best teacher.

Our internship requirement not only fits within the philosophical framework guiding the direction of our program, it also coincides with Gallaudet University’s focus on developing relationships beyond our campus, as a conscious effort to address historical professional networking difficulties facing d/Deaf people wanting to work in Theatre as well as in other disciplines.