On a sweltering Monday in June, I caught the “L” from Davis Street in downtown Evanston and began the commute to River North in the heart of Chicago. It was the summer after my sophomore year at Northwestern, and I was on my way to start my internship in the office of the Chief Marketing Officer for the musical Hamilton. I was elated to begin an exciting new opportunity that day, but had not yet realized just how influential my time with the Hamilton team would be. By the end of the summer, the incredible experience had solidified my desire to become a theatre producer and manager as a full-time career.

Even though I had been studying theatre for two years at Northwestern, there was a huge learning curve when it came to understanding the business side of the industry. There were acronyms to learn (NAGBOR stands for Net Adjusted Gross Box Office Receipts) and Equity rules to memorize (mostly about actors performing in costume). I spent a lot of time handling requests for house seats, the sections of the audience reserved for friends and family of the company, with our management team.  I’ll never forget the time I processed my first request via email and addressed the email to someone named Eliza, only to realize Eliza was the nickname for the Chicago company and not an actual person.

That summer, I began to put my classroom knowledge from my Theatre and Economics majors into practice. I applied my comprehension of pricing strategies from my economics courses toward the development of the marketing strategy for Hamilton: The Exhibition, which was set to open on Chicago’s museum campus the following year. Optimization techniques from calculus and statistics classes proved handy in scheduling cast member interviews with minimal wait times. 

I learned new skills, including how to write a press release, and eventually took on the responsibility of verifying the accuracy of each and every detail in all our lottery, on-sale, and teaser press releases. I combed through hundreds of photos of new Hamilton companies to recommend the best ones for publication in future marketing endeavors. I wrote dozens of case studies on Hamilton-related events, like EduHam, a program that brought students from public schools across the nation to attend a matinee performance and showcase some of their own work before the cast. I helped arrange a screening of Daveed Diggs’ new movie, Blindspotting, for our casts in Chicago and New York. Whenever tickets went on sale in a new city, I helped keep our team abreast of social media buzz so we could address any issues and gauge each market’s excitement.

After the summer ended, I was invited to continue working for the duration of the following school year. I worked from campus every day in the fall, but quickly missed coming into the office. For winter and spring quarter, I rearranged my schedule so that I could commute into the city on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

That November, Hamilton flew my team down to Puerto Rico to help manage the sale of tickets for the run in San Juan, in which Lin-Manuel Miranda would return to his original role as Alexander Hamilton. We spread out across greater San Juan, measuring the speed at which customers passed through sales terminals at the theater, supermarkets, and Walmarts where tickets were available. At the theatre, I walked down the endless line of patrons to thank them for waiting, answer their questions, and foster goodwill between the Hamilton team and the community in which we were working — all of which was done in Spanish.

By the time the internship ended nearly a year later, I was convinced that I wanted to pursue a career in arts management. This newfound certainly led me to double down on my pursuits at Northwestern. I had already produced two shows on campus, and though those experiences were extremely rewarding and challenging, my experience with Hamilton gave me the assurance to continue. I am eternally grateful to the people at Hamilton for taking a chance on me, and opening up a world of opportunity. My experience is truly a testament to the power of Northwestern’s so-called ‘Purple Mafia’ — our alumni network is strong, engaged, and so willing to mentor undergraduates and equip them with the tools they need to succeed.