The Santa Fe Opera & Northern New Mexico College partner to create student internship program

Northern students benefit from mentorships and hands-on experience

A unique partnership between the Santa Fe Opera and Northern New Mexico College (NNMC) is giving Northern students the chance to experience backstage production firsthand. A new internship program provides mentoring and hands-on training to NNMC Film & Digital Media Arts (FDMA) students through shadowing the people who design and build the sets, props and costumes.

Shaping the collaboration

NNMC Director of Integrated Studies/Arts Johanna Case-Hofmeister’s own background working on operas sparked the idea of providing that experience to Northern students. Once the new NNMC Film Studio is developed, FDMA students will have internship opportunities in the industry, but that hands-on production exposure is currently lacking. Case-Hofmeister thought a stint at the Opera could give students a sense of what is involved with large-scale professional production.

“I found the medium to be so exciting. It’s all the arts at an extreme level and all coming together,” Case-Hofmeister said. “So I approached the Opera and said, it would be wonderful if there could be some sort of internship where our students could simply get behind the scenes and have this experience where they’re introduced to things that we see in film and other art mediums.

Case-Hofmeister and the Opera’s volunteer liaison, Marissa Aurora, met in the summer of 2023 to talk about Northern’s art programming and ways the two entities might collaborate. They discussed the possibility of developing internships and resolved to make it happen. Their colleagues were very receptive to the proposal.

“Part of the idea was, what if we could work on growing the skills needed for careers in the performing arts and here at the Opera within the local community for when we’re recruiting, especially in production? I think that goal and mission really resonated with a lot of people here,” Aurora said. “From our community engagement perspective, making more connections in the community north of Santa Fe is something that we really wanted to be doing as well. So we’re really happy to form a deeper partnership with the College.”

The program that was initiated in October 2023 is exclusive to Northern New Mexico College. It is designed as a shadowing internship for students with little to no experience in production. The Opera’s competitive summer Apprentice Programs offer intermediate to advanced training that attracts highly skilled applicants from all over the world. Northern does not offer the intensive production coursework and experience necessary to successfully compete for those apprenticeships. The eight-week internships were designed to run during the opera’s intensive planning time of the year. The interns rotated between various departments, learning skills from a range of production staff.

“The idea was that we bring in the interns when people will have more capacity for teaching and really making this a space where the interns are allowed not to know everything, and to be given the opportunity to really learn on the job,” Aurora said. “The interns worked with a lot of different people.”

The Opera’s production facilities and activities provide many of the same experiences the students might encounter in film production.

“You’re backstage in these huge spaces where there’s all sorts of sets and props and costumes being built. I think the students have seen that it crosses over. What they’re doing at the Opera is totally applicable to what’s happening in film,” Case-Hofmeister said. “It’s exciting. I wish I could have done it in college.”

The internship experience

Natalia Tealer and Nicholas Taylor were the first two interns to complete the program. Tealer is pursuing a Bachelor of Integrated Studies (BAIS) with an emphasis in Self-Design combining Information Engineering Technology and FDMA. Taylor is graduating in May with an Associate of Art in Film & Media Arts and is working toward his BAIS/Media & Art.

Tealer interned Fall semester 2023, working with Properties Director Eileen Garcia, Technical Director Michael Ortiz in the scene shop and Costume Collection Manager Brianna Fristoe. She helped pull fabric and foam off furniture that was being repurposed, learned how to operate hydraulic systems built into heavy furniture to facilitate moving it and helped measure mannequins and pick costumes for display at the annual Winter Gala. She saw how 3-D printers are used to precisely cut set pieces or sculpt large set décor.

Tealer was amazed by the rows of carefully labeled costumes and props, but it was learning what goes into designing all those elements that really fascinated her. She saw the costumers’ books that designate not only materials and color, but what props and set elements the character will interact with and what the lighting will be. Ortiz showed her the digital blueprints used to design and build sets. She saw how the production staff worked together to ensure that every element of a show is integrated and completed on time.

“I had no idea the amount of work that goes into an opera. It’s like its own universe,” Tealer said. “It’s not that I thought it was easy, but there are so many different pieces and departments and everybody has to communicate with each other. Seeing that helped me appreciate what goes into an opera, but also how that applies to movies. It was pretty awesome. It opened up a whole line of things I could learn, things I might want to get into.”

Tealer is interested in sound and lighting production as well and is hoping to observe those aspects in the future.

Nicholas Taylor spent his Spring semester 2024 internship in the prop shop, which fits in with his career plans. He is exploring several options for working behind the camera in film.

“What attracted me was being able to learn hands-on from a lot of different people, the people who work in the background,” Taylor said. “I want to be behind the scenes, rather than having to direct the movie, because I feel like I can help people realize their ideas and help them get it done.”

Taylor’s background in construction made him feel comfortable in props. His father is a contractor who frequently puts him to work. During his internship he did a lot of hands-on training, including assembling tables and leafing picture frames.

“I think it’s cool that you can use construction skills to build pieces. You can weld something together, make something that can add to the show,” Taylor said.

Taylor was also struck by everything that goes into mounting a production.

“It was eye-opening, because this is the stuff you don’t usually think about, as a normal viewer of movies or opera performances,” Taylor said. “You don’t think, how do they make that, or what did they do to do that? It really intrigues me about the why and how.”

One thing stood out for both interns.

“The major thing that stood out to me was the people there,” Taylor said. “Everybody was nice and considerate. They’re happy. They’re really passionate about what they’re doing.”

“That’s pretty awesome, because it’s not always that people get to do things they enjoy doing. They may get to do things they’re really good at, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they really like what they’re doing or where they’re doing it,” Tealer said. “So that would be a goal: I hope whatever I do that I like doing it and I like doing it wherever I’m at.”

Two people in particular inspired Taylor, Lead Carpenter David Levine and Assistant Properties Director Hunter Lloyd.

“They knew a lot, and they gave me a lot of advice that I think I’ll use in film. It just gets me all the more excited,” Taylor said.

Taking it to the future

The Opera will host the interns at a performance and preview dinner this summer, “so they can actually really see what happens from behind the scenes to front of house, and what all this stuff looks like on the stage when it’s being performed,” Aurora said. This will be the first time either has seen a live opera. Taylor is hoping to see Don Giovanni so he can see the leafing he worked so patiently on and Tealer is looking forward the open-air setting.

The Santa Fe Opera will highlight the internship program in this season’s program guides. Aurora sees it as an important addition to the Opera’s community outreach, which includes arts education for pre-K, elementary and high school students, as well as professional development for public school teachers. 

“A lot of people don’t know that the Santa Fe Opera has a lot of community engagement programs and a lot of artistic and educational programs in schools for youth,” Aurora said. “I think that starting this internship is really special because it allows us to continue that into the college level, so we’re really running the breadth of educational opportunities in New Mexico, from pre-K all the way up through college, engaging with the community.”

Both Taylor and Tealer feel their backstage experience gave them insights into what they will encounter in film production, but also opened up other options. Taylor may re-apply for another internship with the Opera in Fall 2024. For Tealer, it has opened up another possibility to consider for her career options.

“Being there, being in the ambiance of it, just felt right, like something was going to come out of it. I think that whether I stay in film or I stay in theater, I’m on the right path,” Tealer said. “I don’t know what that is yet, but something’s in the process. It feels like I’m planting the right seeds, but I don’t know what I’m planting. I’m just going to keep watering them and eventually it’s going to flower like a tree.”

 

Learn more: Johanna Case-Hofmeister, Director, Integrated Studies/Arts johanna.case@nnmc.edu or 505-747-5419