Star Profile
Jim Litzinger Columbia Children’s Theatre is celebrating its 35th season, at least in dog years, according to the staff. With people, they explain, that’s just five years as of this May. Between now and then, Columbia Children’s Theatre has scheduled three plays: Charlotte’s Web (February 5, 6, and 7), Cinderella (February 12-14 and 19-21), and Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business (April 9-10 and 16-18).
As the Web site (columbiachildrenstheatre. com) puts it in its mission statement:
“Columbia Children’s Theatre was founded to serve a need in the Midlands and surrounding areas of Columbia for professional live theatre for young audiences. Each of our productions features professional directors, actors, writers, and designers all focused on delivering a theatre experience for the entire family. We are dedicated to providing programming that enriches the lives of audiences with the wonders and magic of live theatre that speaks across cultural, ethnic, and generational boundaries and gives children memories that will last long after the curtain falls.”
Carrying out that mission is Jim Litzinger, executive director of the Columbia Children’s Theatre.
Litzinger was born in Cleveland, Ohio, where his father worked for Square D. His mother taught first grade. Litzinger’s younger sister Suzanne Rapp is a home health care nurse who lives in Elgin.
When Litzinger was four years old, the family moved to Columbia because his father had relocated at the Square D plant on the Sumter Highway. After kindergarten at Julia Bates and grammar school at both Meadowfield and Atlas Road, Litzinger went to Hand and graduated from Dreher in 1986.
At Dreher, Litzinger developed his appreciation for live theater, performing as often as the productions were available, particularly the musicals. During the summer between his junior and senior years at Dreher, Litzinger went with a school group to Europe where they spent an extended time in France with their French teacher, Sarah Stepp.
Litzinger took his French background with him to Winthrop in Rock Hill, but there he began his major in business. Two years later, he transferred to USC’s Columbia campus, eventually graduating with a degree in French and a cognate in linguistics.
After 10 years in Chicago, beginning as a graphic artist and working his way into Deloitte & Touche, the major league accounting firm, Litzinger returned to Columbia in 2003. He spent three years as the educational outreach director for the Columbia City Ballet.
The ballet business led Litzinger to Camden and the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County as their marketing director. At the time Cristin Cobb was the executive director, and she still is.
The Fine Arts Center’s campus began with the Douglas-Reed house, which is the home of the executive offices and where the receptions are held with the support of a full catering kitchen. The Bassett Building is the main education facility, designed and built just for such a purpose.
At the end of 2009, Litzinger left Camden to join the Columbia Children’s Theatre and its artistic director Jerry Stevenson. The new home for performances at the former Richland Fashion Mall has been on its test run since that April. The plays are performed on the second level, accessible from the main entrance next to the S&S Cafeteria. The Richland Fashion Mall venue is a great leap forward, for sure, but the dream move for Columbia Children’s Theatre is to relocate in its own performing arts hall replete with administration and education facilities, something on the order of what Litzinger had in Camden.
Litzinger and Stevenson see a lot of good children’s theater in the country, but their favorite they know the most about is the Emerald City Theater Company in Chicago. A reachable goal is to soon drop by the Emerald City stage and hear some seasoned staffer remark in highly favorable terms about the quality of children’s theater in Columbia.
February 5, 2010 | Columbia Star, The (SC)
Author/Byline: Star Profile | Section: Business