Photo of Tishi Avvaru by Joel Sitanggang
Through the Los Angeles County Arts & Culture Arts Internship Program (AIP), Los Angeles Performance Practice is thrilled to offer two paid internships annually to current undergraduate or recent graduates in Los Angeles County. Interns work closely with LAPP staff on projects such as the LAX Festival, our Annual Report, and the CAC Catalog, and learn about development, programming, and field initiatives. Meet our new CRM + Digital Methodologies intern, Tishi Avvaru, in her own words.
As someone who grew up in the verifiable middle-of-nowhere, I’ve always felt incredibly lucky to have found a community in creativity. I grew up an hour outside of St. Louis, Missouri, and am currently on the brink of graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Statistics and Data Science B.S., alongside a double minor in History and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. At UCLA, I’m also a part of Lapu, the Coyote that Cares, an Asian American-based theatre org that has helped me continue the love of theatre I am so grateful to have developed in high school.
Finding my way in high school led me to the wonderful world of spreadsheets. I’m a visual person who likes to stay organized to a point of obsession, and I loved the way I could map out almost any idea on a spreadsheet, incorporating color palettes and aesthetically pleasing fonts to my liking. Also in high school, I had the amazing opportunity to take two courses through the Harvard Summer School — one of which being an archeology course. At this point, my interests solidified into something interpretable. I arrived at UCLA with the goal of eventually bringing my interest in data and spreadsheets to archival work.
After my last show in high school, I tried to let go of theater for good, telling myself that it would be better to focus fully on my academics in college. That lasted all of three months. Immediately after classes started in my freshman year, I joined Lapu, the Coyote that Cares Theatre Company, UCLA’s Asian American theatre organization. We only produce original works, emphasizing the creative talents of our members. Through this, I gained a passion for storytelling and supporting artistic visions for original works in any way possible. Being Technical Director and Producer for this organization has been an invaluable experience that I will never forget.
As I progressed through my major, I found it disheartening to see how often explanation, discussion, and non-STEM topics are ignored within statistics. While discussion would be explored during class and in our reports, I found that it would constantly be minimized in favor of the code or the results. I developed an interest in ensuring that insights from statistical analysis remain communicable to everyone, not just people who know the jargon behind statistics. Furthermore, I began to focus on humanities/the arts within my own projects, exploring often underrepresented topics and interests.
All of this combined drew me to intern at LAPP, where I’d get to utilize my more technical skills for a community-based, artistic endeavor. I’m very excited to be able to explore the artistic scene within Los Angeles while strengthening my technical skills and supporting my community. I’m thrilled at the opportunity to explore archival practices through LAPP, and to learn more about the behind-the-scenes of supporting contemporary art. I’m very excited to learn everything that LAPP can teach me, and hopefully contribute my skillset to this organization to benefit the community around me.
