Applications Now Being Accepted For 2009 Woodward Internship

Applications for the 2009 Woodward Internship and Apprentice Programs at Westport Country Playhouse are now being accepted, according to Debra Baron, WCP director of education.

"We are looking for interns nationwide and apprentices locally who are multi-talented and true team players," said Ms. Baron. "Internships and apprenticeships serve as a springboard to young people interested in theater."

The programs are named in honor of Joanne Woodward, former Playhouse artistic director and avid supporter of theater education programs.

Interns must be age 19 or above. Apprentices are high school age.

The Woodward Internship Program offers hands-on positions in production and administration. Production internships focus on the building, managing and execution of the 2009 stage productions, including company management, general production, properties, scenic painting, stage management and wardrobe. Administrative internships include artistic, literary, arts management, finance, education, marketing and development.

Interns are immersed in their chosen field, working with a community of dedicated theater professionals. They are rewarded with superior resume experience, professional connections, college credit and the availability of EMC candidate points.

Westport Country Playhouse provides interns off-site housing and $100 weekly stipend. Internships are available year-round, with the majority available during summer months.

The Woodward Apprentice Program, from June 30 through August 22, is designed to provide high school students with extensive exposure to theater. Apprentices take daily classes in scene study, script analysis, improvisation, monologues and playwriting. They attend workshops with theater professionals and "Artist Hours" in conversation with guests that have included Joanne Woodard, Gene Wilder, Christopher Plummer, and from Broadway's "The 39 Steps," actor Mark Shanahan. They obtain practical experience with professionals on productions in a rotation that includes prop construction, scenic painting, light focus, ushering and more. The apprenticeship culminates in a showcase where participants write, perform or work backstage to produce an original production on the Playhouse stage.

Established in 1946, Playhouse intern and apprentice alumni include composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim, screenwriter Frank Perry, television host Sally Jesse Raphael, composer Mary Rodgers, and actors Cary Elwes and Tammy Grimes. More recent graduates of the program are working professionals in today's theater world, including Chad Rabinovitz, who directed "The Pavilion" at Westport Country Playhouse last season and has directed/assistant directed over 40 professional theater productions nationwide.

Application forms are available on-line at www.westportplayhouse.org. Deadline for apprentice applications is May 19, 2009. Internship applications are accepted year-round.

Celebrating its 79th season in 2009, the venerable Westport Country Playhouse is creating extraordinary, quality productions of new and classic plays. The Playhouse has produced more than 700 plays, 36 of which later transferred to Broadway, most recently the world premiere of "Thurgood" and a revival of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" with Paul Newman, and in earlier years "Come Back, Little Sheba" with Shirley Booth, "The Trip to Bountiful" with Lillian Gish and "Butterflies Are Free" with Keir Dullea and Blythe Danner. The list of actors, directors and other theater artists who have worked and continue to perform on the Playhouse's legendary stage reads like a "Who's Who" of the American theater. They include, in recent years, Karen Allen, Matthew Broderick, Kristin Chenoweth, Jill Clayburgh, Jane Curtin, Richard Dreyfuss, Philip Seymour Hoffman, James Earl Jones, Eartha Kitt, Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Plummer and Gene Wilder; and in past years, Olivia de Havilland, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Helen Hayes, Gene Kelly, Liza Minnelli, Gloria Swanson and Jessica Tandy.

For its artistic excellence, the Playhouse received a 2008 Westport Arts Award for Theater Achievement, a 2005 Governor's Arts Award, a 2000 "Connecticut Treasure" recognition by then Connecticut Lieutenant Governor M. Jodi Rell, numerous Connecticut Critics Circle Awards and a grant from The National Endowment for the Arts, among other significant honors. The Playhouse was designated as an Official Project of Save America's Treasures by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is entered on the Connecticut State Register of Historic Places.

For more information, contact Debra Baron, director of education, Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, Westport, CT 06880, call 203.227.5137 ext. 116, or e-mail dbaron@westportplayhouse.org.