ASU Gammage Executive Director wins Tony Award Honor

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Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, Arizona’s only Tony voter, has been awarded one of Broadway’s top honors: A Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theater.

As Arizona’s only voter for the Tony Awards, she travels back and forth from Arizona to New York many times a year to see every show, not only to inform her vote, but also to scope out which shows to bring to Tempe.

ASU Gammage is part of a network, “the road,” that presents touring versions of Broadway shows.

Roggensack is ASU Vice President for Cultural Affairs and Executive Director of ASU Gammage, and she joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss what this award means and also the upcoming season for Gammage.

Roggensack was surprised, and she didn’t expect to be given the award because the award is typically given to people in New York. It was a remarkable feeling for her to be recognized by Broadway, she said. 

“It is astonishing; you never expect it to happen. The Tony Honor has never been given to someone outside of New York City. So number one, that was a surprise. So mostly it tends to be New Yorkers, and two, I just never even thought I was on the radar for that,” said Roggensack.

Small little pieces of the work that is done at Gammage is making the show more exceptional. ASU and Gammage provide new opportunities that make it accessible for people to see the show, Roggensack said.  

 “What’s been really wonderful is usually it’s Broadway, then the road, but for the kind of work we’ve been doing at Gammage, it’s Gammage, and then New York. So everything from our apprenticeship programs, everything from our military family First Night’s programs, those kinds of things also really saying Broadway is for everyone, and that means not just on the stage or in the audience, but it means my job,” said Roggensack. 

Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, ASU Vice President for Cultural Affairs and Executive Director of ASU Gammage

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