Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, vice president for cultural affairs at Arizona State University and executive director of ASU Gammage, one of Camp Broadway’s partner sites, received Broadway League’s Distinguished Service Award.
Next year marks the 25th year of ASU Gammage’s Camp Broadway program. Read what Jennings-Roggensack had to say to Camp Broadway’s Elysa Gardner in advance of the 20th Anniversary.
Camp Broadway: Twenty years ago you were also the first presenter in America to recognize the Camp Broadway could be an effective program to engage kids and parents in the community with your theater. What did you know then that others had not realized yet?
Colleen Jennings-Roggensack: It was so exciting because the first time I actually just came to New York and watched Camp Broadway in process, I knew that something special was happening. And it wasn’t just a camp activity that you were sending your child to, but it was a deepening of the roots of musical theater, a true American art form in young people. And I have a daughter myself. She’s no longer little, but she was a Camp Broadway camper. And partly what I learned from that is that you instill and plant that seed for theater at that young age. It stays, it blossoms, it grows, and they become lifelong supporters of theater, of art and culture. I would also say what’s really fascinating is they learn how to take risks and how to put themselves forward with a group of other young people they didn’t know and create something marvelous in a short amount of time. So what better way to have young people not only be dedicated to art culture and Broadway but to understand inside of them is a creative being who’s capable of problem-solving on all levels? Also, it teaches them to take the unfamiliar and make it familiar. And that’s what I think is fabulous about Broadway and about the fact that understanding each other through each other’s stories is what’s really, truly exciting. And you learn that at a young age and that the theater is a place where you can become familiar with the unfamiliar, you take it with you outside of the theater, into your community, and into other situations.
Camp Broadway: What role does Camp Broadway play right now in youray play right now in your community?
Colleen Jennings-Roggensack: For us to continue to do Camp Broadway, it’s really critical that people know how do you access, how do you get in, that there’s a place for you to come in, and that there’s a future. It isn’t about the past. We love the classics, but it’s also about the new voices. So our commitment to Camp Broadway is one that is about keeping this American art form musical theater deeply rooted, but also giving it breath and air so we know where the future goes with it.
Camp Broadway: You’ve paid tribute to your parents on various occasions. How did they encourage you and your siblings?
Colleen Jennings-Roggensack: What’s really great, my dad was in the military. He was in the Air Force, so we lived all over the world. But our parents gave us, and both my parents have passed on three gifts, and these were the three gifts. The first gift was, you will be a success if you just broaden your horizons. The second gift they had was, you must give back and you must give back to the community. My mother always said you stand on the shoulders of those who came before you. So I like to think of all those kids who came to Camp Broadway are creating those shoulders, that the next generation is going to stand on, and as they go forward, the next generation will stand on and they’ll stand on my shoulders. And then the third thing gift my parents gave me, which I think is really important, and theater is a place for it, my dad always said, get a job. He used to say, you can’t hide from work, so find the work you love and do that. And I think that Broadway, theater, and culture is a great place for a young person to work. And all of you parents who are listening to this thinking, oh no, my child’s not going to become a starving artist somewhere – you don’t have to starve. And you can use all of those skillset sets that you’ve learned from camp all the way up as you go forward.
Listen to Camp Broadway’s entire interview with Colleen Jennings-Roggensack on the Develop Your Character podcast.
Registration for Camp Broadway in Tempe, Arizona is open for 2024. For more information on the ASU Gammage program, click here.
Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, vice president for cultural affairs at Arizona State University and executive director of ASU Gammage, received Broadway League’s Distinguished Service Award.
