Bloomberg Arts Internship students Kai Rodrigues (left) and Lelio “Sincere” LeBlanc IV collaborate on marketing ideas as part of their seven-week summer internship at Wheelock Family Theatre, July 29.

Arts & Culture

Wheelock Family Theatre Gives High School Students a Hands-On Role in Theater Management

Through collaboration with Bloomberg Arts Internship, two Boston Public Schools students are learning the business aspects of stagecraft while building creative and professional skills

On a recent weekday, as a group of children rehearsed scenes for an upcoming production inspired by The Lion King at BU’s Wheelock Family Theatre, two rising Boston Public Schools seniors were focused on something else. The two were brainstorming a marketing campaign for the show, photographing the young actors and drawing images that could be used in promotional materials.

The BPS students, Lelio LeBlanc IV (he goes by “Sincere”) from Fenway High School and Kai Rodrigues from the Community Academy of Science and Health, are working at Wheelock Family Theatre (WTF) for seven weeks this summer. Their internships are made possible by a collaboration between WFT and Bloomberg Arts Internship (BAI), a program that funds summer internships for high school students at cultural organizations across the country. 

Leblanc and Rodrigues’ internships focus on arts marketing and communications. Working under Bonnie VosWinkel, marketing and communications manager at WFT, the two students have explored photography, videography, social media strategy, and digital asset management while learning about the business side of the arts.

For VosWinkel, the internship filled a gap she had long noticed. WFT offers extensive educational programming for children and an Emerging Arts Leaders program that primarily serves college students, but until now, there have been few opportunities for high school students to gain professional workplace experience there.

The new partnership with BAI dovetails with the theater’s mission of helping young people develop practical skills alongside their artistic interests.

VosWinkel wanted to give the interns a chance to solve actual problems facing the organization.

Throughout the summer, LeBlanc and Rodrigues have helped reorganize thousands of digital photo files to make years of production images searchable, photographed student performances, captured video for social media, and proposed marketing ideas for upcoming productions.

“I explain to them that there’s something that needs to be done,” VosWinkel says. “They’re learning new skills with each task they’re being given.”

She has been delighted by how quickly the two interns have embraced the work.

“They’re so eager to share ideas,” VosWinkel says. “I honestly never know what they’re going to come up with next.”

Although she initially envisioned the interns working independently, she noticed that LeBlanc and Rodrigues naturally became collaborators.

“They really do take the opportunity, unprompted, to get the other’s opinion and work together,” VosWinkel says. 

For LeBlanc, a multimedia artist who has been creating visual art since elementary school, the internship offered something new.

“What interested me about this program is the opportunity I got to learn about marketing and also how to learn to bring my arts to a space that’s not usually conformed to just art,” LeBlanc says.

He quickly discovered that creating marketing for a show requires many of the same creative instincts as making art itself.

“When it comes to theater, everything comes into play,” he says, adding that the writing, the poster designs, even the feelings and emotions that are conveyed on stage, all have to be conveyed in the marketing.

Photography has become one of his favorite parts of the internship, along with brainstorming marketing ideas for future productions with Rodrigues.

The work has also strengthened his goal of becoming an art teacher; watching children perform has reminded him how powerful creative spaces can be.

“When you see those kids that want to make it matter, it makes me want to matter,” LeBlanc says. “It makes me want to care about what they care about.”

Rodrigues entered the WFT internship with a different career path in mind.

The rising senior hopes to pursue physiology and biochemistry in college, but saw the internship as an opportunity to build photography and videography skills using professional equipment for the first time.

“I’ve dabbled a little bit in it,,” Rodrigues says, adding that they especially enjoyed documenting student performances. “It’s always fun to watch the kids do their performances and dancing and singing. It’s like a free movie, basically.”

The interns spend three days a week on-site at Wheelock Family Theatre. The other days are spent with BAI staff, where they are paired with mentors and attend professional development workshops. They also go on local field trips, where they learn about the arts and gain insight into careers in the arts. 

VosWinkel says the confidence the two high schoolers have gained has been one of the internship’s biggest successes.“They’re not going to wait for me to remind them what the steps are. They’re taking initiative.” 

The theater has been so impressed by Rodrigues and LeBlanc, it is exploring the possibility of extending their partnership with BAI and offering internship opportunities through the school year.

“They’re bringing a very fresh perspective, and that’s been great to have on our team,” VosWinkel says.

The partnership reflects what the theater hopes to accomplish beyond the stage, says VosWinkel.

“It aligns very well with our mission about developing young people’s skills,” she says. “We’re constantly looking for partners like that.”