The Foundation is delighted to announce the four new performing arts interns. They are:

• Tawiah Ben M’Carthy in artistic direction, Canadian Stage
• Natasha Mumba in artistic direction, Factory Theatre
• Jordan Laffrenier in artistic direction, Musical Stage Company
• Brittany Johnston in festival direction , Ottawa Fringe Festival

Metcalf’s Internship Program helps organizations devise productive entry points into the sector, realize opportunities to foster leadership, and respond to skill shortages in critical areas. It also reaffirms their commitment to the future by providing formal opportunities for mentoring and training. For interns, it provides individuals with more knowledge, better skills, broader work experience, and useful contacts – all of which will help them make a stronger professional contribution to the performing arts.

Interns are paid and meet twice a year as a cohort. Current internship grants are made for the intern’s complete salary and statutory benefits to a maximum of $32,000 for a full-time, year-long internship. The next deadline to apply is October 9, 2019. Further details on how to apply can be found here. For more on the program visit Performing Arts Interns.

Tawiah Ben M’Carthy in artistic direction, Canadian Stage. Tawiah is a theatre artist who wishes to acquire the managerial and organizational skills of an artistic director within the context of an interdisciplinary and intercultural institution. He has dedicated his artistic practice to creating new multidisciplinary theatre that blends African and Western traditions that speak to his personal experience navigating both his Ghanaian and Canadian identities. This internship will afford him the opportunity to acquire skills and experiences in curation, program development, producing, and management of intercultural work in Canada at a larger scale than he has been exposed to so far in his career.

Natasha Mumba in artistic direction, Factory Theatre. This internship provides a unique opportunity for Natasha to learn about artistic leadership from a female mentor of colour. It also allows her to work with a company whose mission lies at the heart of her intention as an artist – broadening perspectives and achieving more inclusivity through the re-surfacing of underproduced diverse work as well as the development of new Canadian narratives. Factory’s Artistic Director Nina Lee Aquino will be acting as Natasha’s mentor and, along with the Factory team, will provide access to the tools Natasha needs to learn how to build a season financially and artistically and how to work with a board of directors. She will have direct access to how Aquino pitches, manages, and executes Factory Theatre’s ambitions.

Jordan Laffrenier in artistic direction, Musical Stage Company. Jordan’s experience to date both abroad and in Toronto has focused on independent arts administration, education, and musical theatre development. Since graduating from York University in playwriting and dramaturgy, he has narrowed his specific passion to developing new Canadian musicals that are socially, politically, and stylistically relevant, that challenge form, and embrace the intercultural fabric of Toronto. From his perspective, the role of Artistic Director combines his love for theatre, his passion for community outreach and engagement, and his training in business marketing. Jordan wishes to learn how to convert his vision into action through observation, learning, and practice. The Musical Stage Company’s Artistic Director Mitchell Marcus’s will be acting as mentor in this internship.

Brittany Johnston in festival direction, Ottawa Fringe Festival. Brittany is delighted to be working with  the Ottawa theatre community, which has supported her passion to explore and develop Indigenous theatre practices. Although she has had the opportunity to develop her interests and skills through multiple streams – artistic creation, academia, and arts management – she believes that arts festivals effectively marry these different interests. It is her 4-5-year plan to found and manage an all-Indigenous performing arts festival in Ottawa. She is eager to explore curation, venue, long-term planning, budgeting, grant writing, board governance, and artists relations. Johnston will attend numerous conferences and festivals including the Talking Stick Festival of Indigenous Arts and Culture.