A building with a concrete awning. A sign says Dallas Childrens Theater and Rosewood Center for the Performing Arts. The property is landscaped with grass, shrubs and trees.

The Dallas Children’s Theater is located at the Rosewood Center for the Family Arts. Photo courtesy of the Dallas Children’s Theater.

Lake Highlands neighbor Robyn Flatt, who co-founded the Dallas Children’s Theater nearly 40 years ago, has announced her plans to retire next year.

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Well, “retirement” may be too strong of a word for Flatt. She told the Dallas Morning News that she plans to direct her attention to the Baker Idea Institute, an initiative that aims to provide individuals with “the tools to spark creative ideas within your business, educational institution or personal life.” It is named for her father, the late Paul Baker.

Baker was the director of the Dallas Theater Center for 22 years, and he was the founding theater director at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Flatt, who turns 85 next March, followed in her father’s footsteps when she founded the Dallas Children’s Theater in 1984. When the theater began, its budget was $500. By the time the Advocate interviewed Flatt in 1996, that budget had grown to nearly $6 million, and its audience included 150,000 children and their families.

Flatt prides herself on the theater’s ability to expose children to new concepts and philosophies.

“We just don’t choose fluff — we choose productions that will provide good topics to talk about with your children,” Flatt told the Advocate in 1996.

Flatt told the Dallas Morning News that the theater will conduct a nationwide search to find her successor, and she hopes that her position will be filled by August 2023.