Starlight Theatre

In summer 2021, I was a PR/communications intern within the marketing department of Starlight Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. Proud to be a Starlight “cast member,” I enjoyed the opportunity to work full-time (40+ hrs/wk) at a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and an arts and entertainment venue that offers Broadway shows, concerts and more. This opportunity strengthened my knowledge of public relations and of the language of live theatre, enabling me to combine my passion for PR with my love of the performing arts.

During live performances, I shadowed/assisted operations and catering teams, learning more about customer service through concession stand operations and organizing, managing and setting up/tearing down live events. I also did informational interviews with professionals across the areas of community engagement, human resources, marketing, operations, philanthropy and production to better understand the overall organization.

As an intern, I completed tasks such as:

• Writing copy for news releases, press kits, newsletters/blogs, show programs and screens for live shows. See an example of a news release I wrote here.
• Organizing various aspects of Starlight’s YouTube “Broadway Beat”: collaborating with the multimedia team, scriptwriting, organizing talent and delegating pieces of the script, and making appearances in the videos themselves to present industry and organization news. See an example of “Broadway Beat” that I was a part of here.
• Assisting with Starlight’s social media (Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @kcstarlight), including launching a “Streaks with Starlight” Snapchat engagement program that promoted interactivity among a tight-knit community of around 60 active users, posting to Starlight’s live Twitter feed during Starlight’s 2021 Blue Star Awards, and creating/managing an Excel spreadsheet of ad copy for a specific project.
• Collaborating with a multimedia intern, community engagement intern and others to create a recruitment video for the Bob Rohlf Internship program.
• Communicating with local media, show talent and other stakeholders in a variety of settings.