Janis FontaineThe ‘fairy godmother of the arts’ gives a gift for education
Last month, the Maltz Jupiter Theatre took a giant step closer to elevating its education programs when Roe Green, a theater benefactor and Jupiter resident, handed Artistic Director Andrew Kato a $2 million check.
Why it’s important: The gift means $4.8 million of the $5 million needed for upgrades to the Goldner Conservatory has been raised. The conservatory is devoted to teaching children and adults about the performing arts in afterschool, weekend and summer programs.
Who she is: In Cleveland, they call Green the fairy godmother of the arts. She was the only child of federal Judge Charles B. Green, whose investment fortune passed to her. After the death of her parents, Green launched a foundation in 2003 that has supported theaters like the Maltz.
“By the end of the year, I’ll have four theaters in my name,” Green said.
They are:
- Kent State University’s Roe Green Center for the School of Theatre and Dance.
- The Roe Green Theatre at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
- The Roe Green Theatre at Case Western Reserve University, her father’s alma mater.
- The new Roe Green Theater Center on Lake Chautauqua, N.Y., where she owns a lake house.
Since childhood, Green, an only child, has loved the theater (she narrated “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” in kindergarten and that did it) and traveling the world with her parents. She says her father, Judge Ben C. Green, and her mother, Sylvia Chappy Green, led by example.
“Both my parents were generous.” Her father was Jewish, and her mother was a Catholic who appreciated the Jewish values of mitzvah and the teaching of Hillel, including Hillel’s golden rule which said, “What is hateful to you do not do unto others.”
“Education was very important to my father,” Green said. “He said, ‘It’s important what you know because no one can ever take that away.’ But kindness was the mantra of my family. It’s easier to be kind.”
Green earned a bachelor of arts in theater and communications from the University of Colorado in 1970, preferring stage managing to acting. She worked steadily in theater for years after college and spent 20 years as a ballroom dancer, 12 in serious competition.
She founded the Roe Green Foundation in 2003 shortly after her mother’s death. Green says she chooses who to help based on how it makes her feel. “There’s no shortage of good causes,” she said, “so it has to go right to my heart.”
Why she gave to the Maltz
Green has a personal philosophy involving oranges: “If I have five oranges, I eat one, I save one and I give the other three away. And everything I give away comes back tenfold.”
But the Maltz is special, Green said. “I adore Andrew, and I love the theater. He takes things so seriously and he cares about the legacy. The theater is doing well, and he has a good team in place. He listens to suggestions and pays attention.”
It seemed to Green, like it has to dozens of others over the years, that the theater is a good investment. And because this grant will promote youth theater and education, it was an easier decision than some, she said.
“I’m afraid for kids today,” Green said. “They don’t use their imagination. To me it’s so important to be creative and it scares me that they can’t read or sign their names.”
The theater has more than 7,100 subscribers. More than 100,000 people attend a Maltz event every year. About 60 percent of the Maltz’s $9 million annual budget comes from ticket sales and 40 percent from fundraising and donations. Most theaters are happy if they can keep the ratio at 50-50.
Maltz is a producing theater, which means that everything you see on stage is created on-site. The recent production of “Frozen” wasn’t a national production with sets and costumes provided by Disney. The costumes are crafted, the sets are constructed and the actors rehearse right here.
The Maltz will produce four major plays or musicals this spring along with a series of tribute artists between productions. This season they’ve added a cabaret series in the new Island Theatre space.
The theater’s Goldner Conservatory is devoted to teaching children and adults about the performing arts in its after-school, weekend and summer programs.
The Maltz’s storied past
The Maltz was once home to The Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre, a go-to destination for Reynolds’ fans and a local landmark from 1979 to 1996.
The $2 million venue lasted more than a decade, with 116 productions gracing the stage starring A-listers Farrah Fawcett, Julie Harris, Elliott Gould and Martin Sheen. In a few instances, Reynolds performed.
His private dining room was often packed with stars including Liza Minelli and Dom DeLuise, who taught classes at the Burt Reynolds Institute for Theatre Training when the theater became the Burt Reynolds Jupiter Theatre.
After 10 years, Reynolds leased the theater’s 440-seat playhouse to executive producer Richard Akins, who continued operating the theater until 1996. When it closed, Reynolds sold the property on Indiantown Road near A1A to local developer Otto “Buz” DiVosta for $2 million.
It reopened as the Carousel Dinner Theater in late 1996 but that short-lived venture closed within a year. Lowell “Bud” Paxson bought the property and donated it to Christ Fellowship Church in 1999.
Then in 2001, residents formed the non-profit Palm Beach Playhouse Inc. and bought the building for $2.67 million. With Milton and Tamar Maltz on board, the theater underwent a complete renovation in 2003.
It reopened as the Maltz Jupiter Theatre on Feb. 29, 2004.
The total price tag for the upgrades since 2002 has topped $45 million, plus another $5 million to finish The Island Theatre.
One of the last improvements planned is to expand the Goldner Conservatory using 9,600 square feet of space on the second floor that will be able to accommodate up to 1,200 students, twice as many as it can now.
