Jana Robbins (center) with theatre arts and history double major Elyse Bennett and theatre arts and Japanese studies double major Peter Mele, both juniors.

Gettysburg College students met with Broadway producer and actress Jana Robbins during a two-day campus visit in January.

Robbins, who produced Little Women and several other Broadway shows, took part in Fundamentals of Acting and 20th Century Drama classes in the Department of Theatre Arts. She also met with students over lunch, filling them in on the nuts and bolts of life in the professional theater. Communication and networking skills are as important as well-honed acting ability, she said: “You won’t get jobs by sitting in your room thinking about it.”

She also attended a touring company performance of Little Women at Gettysburg College's Majestic Theater and took part afterward in a “talk-back” with members of the cast and audience. She said her goal as a producer is to support works “that inspire us to create a better world.”

Robbins, who was invited to campus by Visiting Assistant Profesor of Theatre Arts Karen Land, has appeared in Broadway shows including Gypsy and Crimes of the Heart, movies including the upcoming The Women with Meg Ryan and Annette Benning, and television shows ranging from “Law and Order” to “General Hospital” to “Cheers.”

Gettysburg College is a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences. With a student body of approximately 2,600, it is located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. The college was founded in 1832.

Posted Feb. 1, 2008

By Jim Hale