Johnny Carson School alum earns Manhattan Theatre Club internship this fall

Nikki Kelly (center) with other Manhattan Theatre Club interns at the opening of "An Enemy of the People" on Sept. 27.
Nikki Kelly (center) with other Manhattan Theatre Club interns at the opening of "An Enemy of the People" on Sept. 27.

Nikki Kelly graduated from the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film’s directing and management program in May 2012. This fall, she landed a coveted Friedman Internship at the Manhattan Theatre Club and is working on the new Broadway production of “An Enemy of the People.”

“Nikki’s internship represents the kind of expectations we have for our students completing the training program at the Johnny Carson School,” said Paul Steger, Director of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film. “Lynne Meadow is one of the most respected artistic directors in the industry and the Manhattan Theatre Club has a long history of producing innovative work for New York audiences. We saw Nikki’s talent while she was here, and obviously the people at Manhattan Theatre Club see her as a valuable asset to her work.”

The Manhattan Theatre Club is a theatre company that produces works on Broadway. The Friedman is the name of their theatre on West 47th St. in New York City.

“My internship means that I am a part of every performance here at the theater,” Kelly said. “New York City is a fantastic city that is always full of excitement.”

As the theatre intern, she takes calls, checks messages, sets up merchandise, keeps inventory of merchandise, writes and distributes a Subscriber Services Report after every show and hands out hearing devices to the hearing impaired, among other duties.

“Everything in the Broadway community is very tight knit. Everyone not only talks the talk, but they walk the walk,” Kelly said. “Constant conversation revolves around recent shows you have seen, what you are working on, and what you are looking to do next in your career.”

“An Enemy of the People,” by Henrik Ibsen, stars four-time Tony Award winner Boyd Gaines and Emmy Award winner Richard Thomas and is directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes. The show started previews on Sept. 4 and officially opened on Sept. 27.

“I am in attendance of every single performance of ‘An Enemy of the People,’” Kelly said. “This means that I am at eight shows a week.”

The internship experience is also giving her an insight into Broadway.

“This internship fits into what I ultimately want to do by giving me the opportunity to observe the Broadway world first hand,” Kelly said. “I get a chance to watch how each department runs, sit in on meetings and be a part of the ‘daily grind.’ It is also a wonderful way to meet professionals within the Broadway world, which hopefully will lead to another job in the future.”

Kelly, who is from Keokuk, Iowa, studied directing and management in the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film. In December 2010, she was a finalist in the Chicago auditions for “The Glee Project” on the Oxygen network. Last spring, she was the regional recipient of the National Stage Management Fellowship for Region V at the Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival and participated in the national festival in Washington, D.C., in April.

Last summer, she was an intern at the Santa Fe Opera, where she was on a properties run crew, managing the hundreds of props used in the opera productions.

“Nikki was a wonderful student in the Johnny Carson School, taking advantage of every opportunity available, from acting to design, from management to working with the Theatrix company,” Steger said. “Her diligence to make an opportunity happen demonstrates her desire to succeed in the entertainment industry. Her experience is the perfect example of a student using what she has learned and putting it into practice.”

Kelly said her experience at the Johnny Carson School helped her create opportunities within the management world of theatre.

“Much of what I am now doing from day to day, I had an opportunity to do while acting as the managing director of the student-run theatre company, Theatrix,” Kelly said. “From running a front of a house, to dealing with tickets, to simply learning how to deal with personalities, it was the best training ground to do it all.”

She said the audience often only sees 10 percent of the work when they come to see a show at the theatre.

“There are countless hours of rehearsals, designer builds/hangs, meetings, etc., that the public never gets to see,” she said. “These ‘behind the scenes’ hours are where I feel students truly get to grow, learn and explore whatever creative story they are trying to tell. UNL is so supportive of each of these steps and understands that it is all about the process of creating a show.”