ELTC’s Education Director Robert LeMaire Honored at New Jersey Theatre Alliance Gala

On Monday, Oct. 22 at New Jersey Theatre Alliance’s annual Curtain Call gala, East Lynne Theater Company’s Education Director Robert LeMaire was honored among education leaders of NJTA’s member theaters. He works with ELTC’s interns and directs the Student Summer Workshop.
Rob has been working with children and young adults for over 20 years. During the 1990s he coordinated education programs, including running the Junior Apprenticeship Program at Historic Cold Spring Village. Since 2001, he’s worked as an Educational Computer Specialist for the Ocean City School District, assisting students and teachers in use of technology.    
As an actor, he appeared in “Vistas of Democracy,” a video in NJ Network Public Television’s Educational NJ Legacy Series, and the History Channel’s “Civil war Terror.” Since 2001, Rob has performed almost yearly in ELTC productions, including, recently, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” in which he was also Assistant Director. For 10 years, he’s worked the live sound effects and performed in ELTC’s radio-style “Sherlock Holmes” and “Nick Carter Detective” productions.
For the Ocean City High School Drama Guild, he’s directed such shows as “Footloose: The Musical,” “Arsenic and Old Lace,” “Spamalot” and “Stage Door,” and is currently working on the fall production, “Pride and Prejudice.” 
Wishing to further support keeping theater in schools, Rob is the President of the Board of Trustees for the Chartertech High School for the Performing Arts, a public school, in Somers Point. Rob also recently joined the Board of East Lynne Theater Company.   
In his own words: “Getting children into the theater is, in my opinion, the single most important thing we can do. They are the future actors, stage managers, artistic directors and of course audience members. They can enlighten their parents and influence their own children down the road. In an area were most schools have cut or underfunded theater programs, every opportunity to turn a child into a theater lover is an opportunity we can’t miss. I also, want to underscore the importance interns. Getting some theater-minded young adults involved with a theater camp and seeing how fun and successful it is, fosters in them the importance of including children in any theater’s mission.”
The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, founded in 1981, is a nonprofit organization whose members are the over 30 Equity professional theaters in the state, with East Lynne Theater Company being one of its earlier members.