I've done an unpaid internship (2 years) at a professional theatre and have just been given an upgrade to an internship with a stipend. Not sure how much yet, but it's my first theatre job where I have ever earned anything so I'm very excited. I think my unpaid internship was great and an amazing learning experience for me. I did a lot of "un-fun work" in addition to the learning (copies, typing, paperwork etc.) that I already knew how to, but was really given a ton of awesome responsibilities and privileges that really tested me and taught me how to learn and retain information quickly. So overall the education benefit of the internship for me was amazing despite the hours of paperwork that I did every day which we all know paperwork is part of the job.
It bothers me that people take advantage of some interns and give them no educational work and the tasks no one wants to do. However, I also really don't appreciate the interns that come in and never want to do any of the hard work. It's part of the job, and in my opinion everyone must "pay their dues" before they are able to do a job they really enjoy. My first days in the theatre were spent, making copies, watching children and other mediocre tasks, but once reliability and progress has been shown in these tasks you can and should be trusted with more which is exactly what has happened in my case.
To Younger SM's:It is not my belief that these discussions about unpaid internships is to encourage us to jump to conclusions and think that we should automatically be paid or push to get there any sooner. Stage management is a craft and must be learned, just be careful about it. That is what is trying to be said here, don't stick around a theatre forever doing paperwork and sitting behind a desk, but rather expect a lot of this your first year/first few months as your peers and superiors may be testing you. Every job in theatre is important and treat every job you are given that way with enthusiasm and make sure that it is done to the best of your ability, however if you are never given ANY opportunity to learn (sometimes you may have to ask, people don't know if you never say anything) it is probably in your best interest to keep looking for new jobs or an internship elsewhere.
To the Advanced/Adult SM's: As a member of what is classified beginner/young stage managers I think that how you and the world approaches this issue is important. Unpaid internships are a great way to learn, and in my case have been very helpful. Unfortunately I understand that this is not always the case. It is important that there are people out there to help guide and encourage the new members of the community, but it should never be sugar coated. What I am seeing more and more often is that kids my age want to immediately be given opportunities that they are not ready for without doing any work.
What I personally found to be useful about the early months of my unpaid internship was that no one made it easy. Sometimes my job required me to sit behind a desk for what seemed like forever typing, making copies and doing deliveries, but at the same time there were people there who encouraged me and I was able to watch the paperwork and information that I generated come into use during the shows. Internships should always grow, and you need to find someone who is willing to stick with it until the end so that you can push them to do harder tasks and become more successful. Those are the people that are going to stay with stage management for a while. It is extremely difficult but very important that people involved in the industry are able to find the balance between work and education. An internship should not mean little/no work that no one wants to do (sweep/mop the stage) but at the same time it needs to have an educational value (here is how this works, here is why we do this).
Resolution Idea: It happens, everyone can get carried away over the period of a show, apprentices and interns can have incredibly long hours and very short lunch/dinner breaks. Something that has been extremely helpful to me in the past is oftentimes there is a person trusted by the theatre who is able to look in as a third party and advocate for the interns and apprentices. This person works very closely with the SM and director when the weakly schedule brings to their attention things that are often forgotten in the scheduling process. i.e. if rehearsal starts at this time for this scene that means so and so will only have this long for dinner because they are coming straight from another show. This at least puts everything out into the open which is good for the interns as well as for the administration members.