BRUNSWICK

For many, summer days are long and lazy — but not so for the interns at Maine State Music Theatre, where summer means showtime.

This year’s performance interns are eight bright-eyed and college-aged adults selected from more than 2,000 hopefuls across the country.

The interns perform in MSMT’s mainstage productions — this year “Always… Patsy Cline,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Grease” and “Newsies” — direct the Theater for Young Audiences shows “Sleeping Beauty” and “Alice in Wonderland” and put on the Monday Concert Series.

Additionally, the interns regularly visit and perform for MSMT sponsors. They recently regaled members of the senior community at People Plus, as well as shared their experiences with members of the community.

According to People Plus Director Stacy Frizzle, the event is one way that many members of the senior community who might not be able to afford tickets to MSMT productions — which can range from $40 to $60 — can experience the magic of MSMT for free.

“The partnership between People Plus and Maine State Music Theatre is one of the most vital relationships in the (Brunswick) community,” Frizzle said. “The intern show connects our seniors with the music of their youth.”

Mickey White, a performance intern from Doxbury, Massachusetts, said that it’s the combination of community and career experience that has made his experience with MSMT meaningful.

“The interns in most program are normally lowest on the totem pole,” said White, a student at the Boston Conservatory. “But here, if someone were to just walk through, I doubt they would be able to say (who is who), because they do such a good job of incorporating us in everything that’s going on and respecting us. ‘Intern’ is just a title. We’re learning so much and doing just as much work as anyone else, and they make us feel like family.”

That sense of community is due in part to the Angel volunteers, members of the Brunswick community who support student interns through the Adopt an Intern program. A couple of Angels are People Plus members, such as Judie Lemons, the chairwoman of the Adopt an Intern program. Lemons said that she looks forward to the MSMT interns arrival in Brunswick every summer.

“Just to see the talent that these kids have is unbelievable,” she said. “To see the enthusiasm and the work ethics that they have because they work very hard. … They really are nice kids.”

Small shows for sponsors like People Plus are just a fraction of how MSMT interns spend their summer months. Most days, it’s a non-stop grind between learning seminars, rehearsals and performances.

MSMT also employs technical and marketing interns. Andy Canning, a props intern from Marietta, Georgia, has spent his summer making common objects, like a trash can or notebook, for the stage.

“One day I’ll be … doing research on 1950s New York and then the next day I’ll be making a fake sandwich. It just varies, and it’s always fun.”

Canning hopes that this internship is the gateway to his career aspirations in technical and prop production.

“The standards here are so high that we have to step up to them. It’s a good place for me to hone in on my craft and I get to build all of these things from scratch most of the time,” he said. “It’s not a lot of me just doing the thing I do, but learning more and growing. It’s the experience and the connections I make with all the designers and people I interact with.”

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