Broadway Girl Lives Dream in NYC Internship

When Miranda Palumbo ’16 says, “Show tunes are my life,” she isn’t exaggerating.

Every Monday, she gets email alerts with Broadway reviews. She saw her first show at 3 years old (though she doesn’t remember it. She does remember her second show at 6 — Lion King. “I loved it.”) She’s taken musical theater dance classes and knows the words to just about any Broadway tune you ask.

So this summer, when she is spending nearly three months in New York City interning for the Tony-award winning venue Signature Theatre Company, Palumbo is quite possibly in show tune heaven.

“This has been a really great experience for me so far,” said Palumbo, of Coral Springs, FL. “Professionally, I am learning about the power of social media and how social media channels such as Facebook have all these different resources for businesses. I also have learned the different processes that go into marketing a production. Personally, I have met some of the nicest people.”

As a digital media intern, Palumbo audits the technology in the theater lobby (touchscreens with history on the theater), maintains the company’s press archive, helps out on video shoots and performs social media research.

“I have been coming up with ideas for our Instagram and finding ways to be able to post to all of our social media platforms from one place,” said Palumbo, who is the UTTV Spartan Television general manager. “I also am responsible for working on images in Photoshop for social media and compiling and presenting monthly social media analytics.”

The Signature interns gather regularly for seminars where they lean more about the industry and the different aspects of the business, which has given Palumbo a realistic vision of what working in this field entails. She said helping on video shoots has been an additional highlight.

“Whether I was just helping set up equipment or actually had a camera in my hand, I have been able to learn by doing, which gives me skills that will be very helpful in the future,” she said.

All that work hasn’t stopped Palumbo from crossing things off her bucket list and adding a few more — like being the first in line during Broadway Bakes at Schmackary’s to buy cookies from Audra McDonald and Will Swenson, and watching the Tony Awards broadcast in Times Square from Radio City Musical Hall.

“It was so much fun cheering and screaming with a bunch of people who love Broadway just like I do,” she said.

Palumbo, a communication major and advertising minor, is no stranger to landing internships. Having spent a good deal of time in the Office of Career Services getting feedback on her resume and cover letters, she applied to 13 last year, accepting a position as a news producer for Tampa’s WFLA, helping write and edit commercials.

It was during this internship she was introduced to the field of Broadway promotions, which has opened up another possibility for Palumbo post-graduation, where she wants to work in theater media.

This year, she applied to 10. She had heard about Signature and applied on a whim. When she was in New York City on a spring break UT special topics trip with Paul Finocchiaro, assistant professor of theatre, she got the call from Signature asking for an interview. Since she was in town, she made the interview for the following day.

“It was one of the craziest things but the best thing,” she said.

Have a story idea? Contact Jamie Pilarczyk, Web Writer
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