Arizona's Broadway Connection

For Gammage Executive Director Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, all the world's a stage

by Sue Breding

Placing a stack of playbills on her office table, Colleen Jennings-Roggensack smiles and says, “This is the beginning of the season.” The theater programs are from Broadway’s latest shows, including “Dividing the Estate” and “The Seagull.” They are not only cherished souvenirs from time she spent inside New York City’s wonderful theaters near 42nd street and Broadway; you could also describe them as her homework.

Jennings-Roggensack, the executive director of Arizona State University Gammage, has not only turned Tempe into one of the top-touring Broadway markets in the country, she is also Arizona’s only Tony Award voter. For a decade and a half, Jennings-Roggensack has helped decide who gets the theater’s equivalent to the Oscar. “Last year, I saw 48 Broadway plays and musicals. It’s part of my responsibility,” she says, adding,” It’s an incredible honor.”

The Tony judging process begins when a committee evaluates each season’s productions. To qualify for the award, a show must run at least six weeks. “Those shows then send me letters that say, ‘Dear Tony voter, we’re ready for you,’” Jennings-Roggensack explains. “They always have a pair of tickets for me, and they’re good seats, too.”

FIRST ACT

At age 5, not only did our local Tony voter not have good seats, she didn’t have a seat at all when her parents took her to see “Madame Butterfly” at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House. “We had standing-room-only tickets because that’s what we could afford, and it was just amazing,” says Jennings-Roggensack. Early exposure to the arts in Manhattan had a profound effect on her. “We would go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and we got tickets to Broadway. My parents were not well off, but they thought those things were really important.”

In fact, you could almost draw a direct line from Jennings-Roggensack’s upbringing to how she makes decisions as a leader in Arizona’s arts community. Because her father was in the Air Force, she, her mother and siblings lived in a variety of places, crossing the globe from Japan to South Dakota. “Part of my parents’ belief was that we understand, acknowledge and immerse ourselves in the culture of wherever we are,” Jennings-Roggensack says. Her parents, Gene and Lottie, also assured her she would be a great success in life if she looked for ways to broaden her horizons and give back to the community.

ARTISTIC REACH

Thanks to the teachings of her parents, Jennings-Roggensack’s current job of bringing great shows to Gammage is only part of the picture. Like the circus juggler spinning plates on several poles, she works with her staff overseeing performances held outside of the beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building on the ASU campus, in places where the arts can excite, inspire and even heal.

For example, incarcerated women will tell you about the boost in self-esteem they feel after being treated to visual and performing arts classes through the “Journey Home” program. And you can see a marked change in demeanor among “at risk” inner-city kids as they watch “Street Jam” inside a downtown Phoenix building. The local “Stomp”-like group uses trashcans and washboards as musical instruments, rousing the slouching kids out of their folding chairs and onto their feet to dance. The outreach has resulted in many awards for Gammage, which are displayed around Jennings-Roggensack’s office along with photographs of her with such luminaries as Robert Redford, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and former President Clinton, who appointed Jennings-Roggensack to his National Council on the Arts.

“This was Super Bowl XXX,” she says, gesturing toward a poster-sized image of football’s premier game. “We helped produce the half-time show.” Jennings-Roggensack also helped put ASU on an international stage as a host for the 2004 presidential debate.

TEMPE’S GROWING STATUS

Programming the Gammage Broadway season is a multiyear process for Jennings-Roggensack, who studies available shows, their costs and business terms, and narrows down the choices as she looks at the touring routes across the country. “Tempe is known for its strong sales, and Broadway producers often include Colleen in their decision making,” explains Gammage director of communications Michael Porto. “Colleen sees all Broadway offers and her keen sense of not only the show’s aesthetic, but also of what will be marketable in Tempe, gives her an idea of what, ideally, she would like to present.”

Steve Winton, CEO of Broadway Across America of New York City, says it’s nothing short of remarkable that Jennings-Roggensack has made Tempe a top-touring Broadway market. Winton admits he’s mystified how Jennings-Roggensack manages to devote so much time to Gammage, ASU, her family and the National Arts Groups. “I truly do not understand how she’s able to accomplish it all,” he says. “I chalk it up to her dancer’s roots. Dancers are so self disciplined and therefore able to do more than us mere mortals.”

THE JOURNEY

In college, Jennings-Roggensack studied dance and 16th century literature. Not long after graduation, she began laying the foundation for her career creating tours and handling show details for artists including the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Van Halen. “I learned a lot from rock ‘n’ roll about contracts, negotiations and where to toe the line,” she recalls. “Even though I was in my 20s, I looked 15! I was a teeny-tiny black woman, and there were not a lot of black women in rock ‘n’ roll. These guys thought they could blow right past me.”

Now, as the fiscally responsible executive for Gammage, Jennings-Roggensack will draw on 16 years of successfully navigating the venue’s ups and downs to work through the current economic challenge. “We’re rethinking our development plan in light of what I call ‘the new normal,’” she says. “We’re going to work hard. We know we’re important to the university and we believe we are also important to this community we serve. “

She has passed on her own love of the arts, as well as Lottie and Gene Jenning’s inspirational teachings to her 18-year-old daughter Kelsey Roggensack, who plays piano, double bass, swims competitively and does community-volunteer work. Their joint idea of mother-daughter fun often involves theater outings. “For Kelsey’s 16th birthday, we went to NYC and saw eight shows!” she says. “My daughter is very poised, and I’m so proud of her.” Her husband of 21 years, volcanologist Kurt Roggensack, also works at ASU, bringing his expertise to research projects. The family loves outdoor adventures including skiing, canoeing and sea kayaking.

In late May, Jennings-Roggensack will finish her Tony homework by following the voting protocol. On her official ballot, she will mark her selections for the award of excellence, sign the ballot, seal it inside an envelope, and mail it to the Broadway Leagues accounting firm. “I’m working in this field, which requires a capacity to withstand a lot of work, but it’s a perfect job for me because I love this,” she says. “I really feel blessed.”

Sue Breding is an Emmy award winning TV news reporter in both Los Angeles and Phoenix, most recently doing feature reporting for Channel 3’s “Good Morning Arizona.” She is married to journalist Cary Pfeffer and the couple has three children.