by Janet Hewitt, Guest Blogger
Roberta Gasbarre and Janet Hewitt by the Discovery Theater office
Is Washington a theater town? On a scale of one to ten, where would the District fall when it comes to rating top towns for innovative, vibrant theater?
We put the question to Discovery Theater Director Roberta Gasbarre and she was more than happy to set us straight.
According to Roberta, DC does way more than just hold its own in the world of contemporary theater. She has been Director of Smithsonian Associates Discovery Theater since 2000. Plus, she cut her teeth in the DC-theater world. So if anyone would know, she should.
DC may actually be a step ahead of other places known as theater-forward cities. And this is where Discovery Theater (DT) comes in. Offering innovative programs geared at young audiences, the DC area has been breaking new ground in growing the next generation of educated and discerning theatergoers--no matter where they live or what language is spoken at home.
Roberta says, “That is the old myth” that Washington is not a theater town. “There is so much theater in this region. There is something for everyone,” she told us in a recent interview.
One of her first jobs out of Catholic University was with Arena Stage’s Living Stage Company, an outreach program that brought improvisational theater into the community. (And yes, that’s the same Arena Stage that premiered the award-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen in July 2015, a full year before it hit Broadway and walked away with six Tony Awards.)
So, I think the answer is “yes,” Washington is a theater town.
I recently sat down with Roberta in her colorful office inside the Ripley Center and she shared some of the things that are unique about DT, as well as the whole DC theater scene and her place in it.
Roberta was born just outside Buffalo, New York, in a place called Grand Island, New York. She took dance lessons from Michael Bennett, a seven-time Tony Award winning writer, director, choreographer and dancer who also hailed from Buffalo. Among Bennett’s many honors, he won Tony awards for Best Direction of a Musical and Best Choreography for the musical A Chorus Line.
After moving back to New York after college, a friend told her that Arena was looking for production staff for its Living Stage outreach program. She came back down and got the job.
After her time with Arena, she left to start a family and then got back involved with local DC cabaret work in the mid-80s. She was spotted by the Education Director at The Shakespeare Theatre Company. The legendary Michael Kahn brought her on as choreographer and period movement stylist after she served as the Associate Director for Quilters, a musical about the lives of pioneer women. She worked with Kahn’s urban artist program for six seasons.
Although her MFA degree is from Towson University in world theater, she says her “first, post-graduate degree was working with Michael Kahn.”
Throughout the 1990s, she was choreographing at such theaters as Wooly Mammoth, Round House Theater, Washington Jewish Theater and others. She also taught at American University, George Washington University and Catholic University.
And that brings us to her current role as Director of Discovery Theater. Before coming on board, Roberta had produced performances for DT, so she was familiar with the theater’s unique focus. She would find people who were tradition bearers and bring them in to do shows. Some of those performances highlighted Scandinavian, Japanese and African cultures.
After pitching shows from the outside, a full-time opportunity came her way. In 1999, the Associates asked her to come interview for the opening they had for the Director’s job. At the time, she says, she was doing a lot of freelance work, was Artistic Director for Washington Revels theater group (a job she still holds), and was raising children. Roberta joined the Associates staff, and today is in the middle of her 21st year with Discovery Theater.
DT presents 300 plus performances and programs a year. With just three full-time staff, Roberta says it serves about 50,000 children “and their adults” annually. The other members of the team are: Sara Lokossou, Box Office Manager and Administrative Coordinator, and Sam Game, Production Manager and Technician. Every year they train 12 to 20 actor/educators to perform in the productions.
“I consider myself a museum theater specialist,” she says. She adds, “I like to say we present history/heritage/culture and accessible science and math.” She describes DT as “mostly a production house that creates interactive performances for [Discovery’s] season and for folks all over the Mall.” She calls the role her theater plays as “pan-institutional,” because DT has developed programs for general audiences in many of the other Smithsonian museums around the Mall, including the National Air and Space Museum, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, and the National Museum of American History. This year Discovery produced a special project for the National Museum of the American Indian where a play was created based on discussions gathered during museum talking circles at the museum.
Roberta says she is always sending the message out to other Smithsonian museums: “Who’s Out There and Who Needs Us?”
She says her team does extensive research whenever they create a show. They follow four basic tenets of museum theater: First, it must be built around a significant, Smithsonian-worthy topic. Second, the content must be accurate and authentic. Third, the format has to be interactive. (She describes Discovery Theater as an “interactive classroom on the stage.”) Fourth, it must be relevant. Roberta says the key test all shows have to pass is this typical 5th grade question: “What’s in it for me? Why should I care?” (The primary audience for these shows is children from 2 to 16 years old.)
She offers an example of how relevancy is built into the contents of Discovery Theater’s shows. “Black Diamond: Satchel Paige and the Negro Leagues” examines a period when Major League Baseball excluded African Americans from playing on professional teams. She says the show demonstrates to children how when others don’t let you play, you can go out and form your own team and become so successful that finally people ask you to play with them because you are that good.
As she moves into her 21st year with Discovery Theater, she still loves what she’s doing. In 2020, DT will present six touring shows for local schools and other venues. “It’s really important work and I have lots of plays left it me,” she says with a smile. Before she heads out of her office and down the hall to meet with her team in the custom-designed theater space in Ripley, she says, “We work hard, but it really is worth it.”
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