Robyn Flatt has had a long and successful career in drama – starting from the third grade. As founder and artistic director of the Dallas Children's Theater, Flatt was on campus Oct. 21 to share her experiences with
aspiring student actors.
Andy Long, chair of the Drama Department, took part in the discussion and said Flatt has won more directing awards than any person in Dallas history. Last month, The Dallas Morning News nominated her for Texan of the Year.
"The truly fantastic thing about her is she funded the DCT in 1984 with $500," Long said. "This year their annual operating
budget was over $3 million."
The idea for the DCT was conceived in 1976 when Dallas began to promote the arts in the community as much as possible, Flatt said. Symphonies and dance in the parks were popular, but the city wanted to find a way to add theater outdoors.
At the time, Flatt was at the Dallas Theater Center and put together people she worked with to form a mime acting group. But, she knew it would be difficult to do drama in the park because people needed to hear it as well as see it being performed.
"We spent several months developing a very visual kind of theater that would play well in the parks," Flatt said. "From 1976 to 1982, we performed at almost every park in the city of Dallas."
It was then that the bottom fell out. New leadership took over the Dallas Theater Center and they wanted a clean slate. With a new director and employees, Flatt said she thought about starting a theater, but didn't have much money to do so.
"I had $500 to start off with," Flatt said.
Flatt said she was able to pull together
people in the acting field who could do
scenery and create costumes. She even found some space – an empty public school with classrooms. The Theater Center gave her some subscribers.
"I didn't have money, but I had people," she said.
"What I did have was a whole family of theater friends who had worked together for a long time," Flatt said. "I had help. I had a lot of fantastic talent."
About that time, Janet James, now executive assistant to the president at Richland, who worked at El Centro College then, told Flatt she could use their theater. Flatt and her acting staff developed four plays, had the support of El Centro and the subscribers who had paid their money to the Theater Center.
"That first year we managed to bring in $40,000 in ticket sales and class tuitions and $40,000 in contributions. I hardly ever slept. I didn't pay myself anything for the first
several years. It was like, very hard to start something," Flatt said.
But, success eventually came in 2000 when the DCT bought its own home in Dallas and opened in 2003. The 58,000-square-foot
facility boasts two theaters, props, a costume and puppet shop, scene storage offices and a faculty. They have about 12 resident actors, a full-time staff of almost 30 and use about 150 contractors – actors, designers, teachers and people for the box office.
Flatt discussed a play the DCT produced on Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss titled "And Then They Came For Me ..."
It's the story of how Schloss and her mother
survived the Holocaust.
"She's [Schloss] absolutely one of the most inspiring people I've ever met," Flatt said. "The wonderful thing about theater is you get to meet so many different people." Schloss celebrated her 80th birthday on the DCT stage in Spring 2009 as they were putting on her production.
Flatt said she believes the DCT should work on issues that people are facing
today, such as bullying. Six years ago, Linda
Daugherty developed "The Secret Life of Girls," which the DCT did as a reading. They will bring it back in February.
"One of the roles theater plays is helping publicize a problem that everybody's facing," Flatt said. If you can do it in a play, it opens the door to dialogue. "I'm such an advocate for theater. It helps with community, too."
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