Two of Denison’s majors — Politics & Public Affairs and Theatre — might seem to have nothing in common, but Kylie Reed ’27 found a way to blend her two passions.
Reed, a double major, has wanted to be a lawyer for as long as she can remember, but her experiences at the Eisner Center for the Performing Arts made her realize where her two interests intersect: entertainment law.
Entertainment law focuses on intellectual property, copyright, and ensuring that artists are protected and paid appropriately.
“Finding your niche is really important,” said Reed. “Entertainment law won’t be the only thing I do, but it’s what I’m most excited about.”
Reed worked at The Bradley Law Firm and Quantum Counsel in Metairie, Louisiana, in summer 2025. Bradley Law is a private defense firm, and Quantum Counsel is a civil firm with experience in entertainment law.
At her internship, Reed prepared for trials, researched cases, and occasionally spoke in court.
As the only Gen Z in the office, she was also tasked with locating people using her online investigative skills.
No two days at her internship were the same, much like her work in Eisner. Many of the skills Reed learned through stage management and lighting design transferred directly to her legal work.
Working on a performance crew requires working under pressure and solving problems independently. Mistakes are inevitable in live performances, and Reed’s job is to fix them as seamlessly as possible.
“When you have to figure out something, sometimes you’re just wrong,” she said. “And that’s OK. My work in Eisner has made me comfortable with taking feedback when I do something incorrectly.”
As a lighting designer, Reed must understand the intended mood or message of a performance and communicate that message with her lighting design. The work has given her a new perspective. She now thinks about colors and shapes and their meaning, not just in Eisner performances, but in her everyday life.
“Lighting design teaches you to think about how humans subconsciously view those colors and shapes, and that’s such a cool way to consider job interviews, or going to court, or really anything in life,” Reed said.
