Linda Hartzell, ’83, raises standards of children’s theater
As a little girl, Linda Hartzell never went to museums or concerts. Her only exposure to the theater was when she was five—she got to see a cousin in a school play.
Today, the little girl who never experienced the joys of the theater is now the artistic director of the Seattle Children’s Theatre—the second largest resident professional children’s theater in the U.S.—and an internationally recognized voice in the field of children’s theater.
As an actor, writer and director, Hartzell has devoted her life to making theater for young people into something special. Her impact has been so widely felt that she has been named a recipient of the 1994 College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Achievement Award.
Not bad for someone who was once told by her WSU drama teacher that she had no talent.
Hartzell, who got involved in school plays as a way to escape problems at home, enrolled at WSU because she wanted to leave home. But she wasn’t happy there—especially after hearing the “no talent” comment—and came to the UW in 1970.
She changed her major four times before settling on drama. “The teachers at UW really inspired me,” she says. Once on stage, “the theater bug bit me.”
Graduating with her drama degree in 1973, she then taught drama and acted to support herself. By 1984, though, she was divorced, raising a son, teaching at Lakeside School and looking for acting and directing jobs. One day, on the recommendation of a student’s mother, she was asked to become the interim artistic director of the children’s theater. “I jumped in and handled problems one by one, and never thought beyond the opening of a show,” she says. “I was living for the moment.”
Today, the Seattle Children’s Theatre is alive and well with 13,000 subscribers and annual attendance topping 240,000. The theater recently moved into the new $10.4 million Charlotte Martin Theatre at the Seattle Center.
Hartzell became dedicated to young people’s theater because she found, as a wife and mother, that children’s theater was “condescending and cutesy.” “I took it personally,” she says. “I got angry. Kids deserved better.” So she developed new, sophisticated plays. “It became my personal mission to do children’s theater right,” she says.
Hartzell, who lives in Seattle with her husband, Mark, and son, Adam, says she is honored and slightly embarrassed by the award. “I’m only doing what seems like common sense,” she says. “I’m honored to have children’s theater come of age and get some recognition. Children’s theater deserves it.” So does Linda.