Robyn Baker Flatt has had a 30-year career in theater, collecting credits as a professional director and actor in performances throughout the world. At 58, Flatt is using her knowledge to inspire an audience of a different kind.
“Theater for young people does an absolutely amazing thing for a growing mind,” Flatt says.
“It provides an environment for children to explore ideas.”
Flatt, a Lake Highlands resident for more than 20 years, is co-founder and director of the Dallas Children’s Theater. As the only organization of its kind in the City, the DCT helps children reach their potential using theater as a medium, Flatt says.
“We’re providing an environment for children to explore ideas,” Flatt says.
The 170-seat theater, housed in the original sales office of the Crescent on Cedar Springs, has an 11-show season and employs 17 full-time staff members and more than 170 actors, designers, theaters artists and educators. Productions also are held at El Centro College.
The DCT not only presents literature classics such as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Charlotte’s Webb,” and “Little Women,” but also premieres contemporary plays that challenge and expose families to current issues and multi-culturalism.
“We just don’t choose fluff – we choose productions that will provide good topics to talk about with your children,” Flatt says.
In addition to its performance season, the organization focuses on educating through the arts. The theater partners with area schools, collaborates with the Dallas Public Library system, offers classes through the DCT school for theater arts, and conducts outreach into the community.
“Education is finally figuring out that we have a larger field in which to learn,” Flatt says.
“Learning becomes a dynamic activity – not just a passive receiving.”
Flatt and Dennis W. Vincent, now the director of the Arts District Friends, launched the theater 14 years ago with a $500 nest egg.
The DCT has grown to a budget of $6 million and expanded its audience to include 150,000 children and their families.
The DCT was named “Professional Theater of the Year” by the Southwest Theatre Association and was awarded a $92,802 grant by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, the largest private funding entity of arts and culture in the country. The theater’s resident playwright and education director, Linda Dougherty, also was named “Playwright of the Year.”
It’s only fitting that Flatt would succeed in the realm of theater.
Her father is Paul Baker, who was the Dallas Theater Center’s artistic director for 22 years. Baker worked with renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright to build the theater in 1955. She recalls dinners at her childhood home in Waco attended by Charles Laughton, Burgess Meredith and Wright, who also designed an addition to the Flatt’s home.
Flatt is looking for a substantial endowment to help fund a permanent home for a 700-seat theater her architect husband Richard already has designed.
