Interview: Jeff Revels On 20 Years as Artistic Director and 30 Years at Orlando Family Stage

Jeff Revels begins his 20th year as Artistic Director of Orlando Family Stage, having celebrated 30 years with the organization last year. One of the largest professional Theatre for Young Audiences organizations in the United States, Orlando Family Stage was founded in 1926 and recently marked its 100th anniversary. As the theatre enters its second century, its new season brings together the world premiere of The Best Halloween Ever, the return of Pete the Cat, and titles including The Hobbit and Dragons Love Tacos 2: The (Mu)sequel!, alongside Youth Academy productions and the Florida Children's Book Festival.

Revels has directed many productions at Orlando Family Stage, including A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS: LIVE ON STAGE, THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL, PETE THE CAT, and THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER: THE MUSICAL. His work beyond the theatre has taken him to Universal Orlando, Dollywood, Brazil, and the Philippines, and he has written for numerous nationally syndicated events. In 2015, the City of Orlando proclaimed "Jeff Revels Day" to honor his work.

BroadwayWorld spoke with Revels about what has kept him at one theatre for three decades, how the organization and Central Florida have changed around him, and why he believes children deserve ambitious, sophisticated theatre that respects their intelligence.

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What does hitting 20 years as Artistic Director and 30 years at Orlando Family Stage mean to you personally, and what has kept you at one theatre for three decades?

Oh my, such a huge question to process and I will not be able to truly articulate what it means. I am very proud and appreciative to have found an artistic home and community. To grow with this community for 30 years is a remarkable achievement to ponder. We, as a theatre, only exist if the community sees it as important and vital to the community's fabric and infrastructure. The greater Central Florida region sees the arts as a non-negotiable and that a strong community must have a vibrant arts sector, but it is our responsibility to work every day to maintain that trust and communal agreement. We are in partnership with our community and must deliver or we do not exist. So, the number of years means to me that we are delivering and I know that the number of years also means a deepened knowledge of and relationship with community. I absolutely adore the Orlando area arts community and am privileged to be a contributing member. I know I've used the word community a lot, but that truly is at the essence of how theatre thrives.

What has kept me at the theatre is an absolutely incredible artistic home that has allowed me to deepen my knowledge and skills and has allowed my career to follow many paths. While I am running the theatre and developing programming, I have used those skills to branch out into writing for theme park shows and for television events. I have been able to travel to other countries to share my art. My artistic output has grown tremendously because I was allowed to grow here. I have brought talent from those other projects back to the theatre as well and it all works in concert with each other. I also know that your work gets stronger the longer you have a stable base and that is rare, so I am extremely grateful. To have an artistic home in a community that you love is not something you take for granted, even when the times are rough.

Looking back, how has Orlando Family Stage changed since you first arrived, and how has Central Florida changed around it?

We are currently in our Centennial Celebration, celebrating 100 years of theatre in Central Florida. Over that 100 years, our name has changed eight times and I have been here for three of those names, so quite a bit has changed, but I will share the most monumental. In 1999/2000, the Civic Theatres of Central Florida, where I was hired on my birthday in 1995 as box office assistant and props crew member, was facing an existential crisis. The three-theatre complex had been operating three separate types of programming: a stage that featured Broadway-style shows, a smaller space dedicated to edgier, off-Broadway-style shows, and a stage dedicated to theatre for young audiences. By 1999, we discovered that the Theatre for Young Audiences programming along with our educational programming for children and teachers was the programming that had been keeping the theatre afloat, but it was soon reaching an unsustainable place.

Working with board and vested community members, we approached the City of Orlando who connected us with the University of Central Florida. Through many talks, feasibility studies, and legalities, we all made the decision that because of the strength of the programming that was working, we would re-focus (and re-name) the theatre, so Orlando Repertory Theatre was born. The theatre's entire focus would now be theatre for young audiences and educational programming. At the same time, the university would develop a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre for Young Audiences where students would learn theory in classes and in practice at the theatre. I was Education Director by that time and made the transition with the newly re-focused theatre. It was the most, and in my opinion the best, monumental change in the theatre's history. We then fine-tuned the name during the pandemic to better identify the type of work we did.

A city is very fortunate if it has a professional theatre that is 100% focused on Theatre for Young Audiences, as they are way more rare than professional theatres that do theatre mainly for adults and also do a few productions for young audiences. The research and development for our specific demographic is similar to, but also with many differences than, general theatre, and with Theatre for Young Audiences as our focus, we are able to go deeper into the work and make it the strongest it can be with the resources we have for today's children.

The Central Florida arts scene has changed dramatically as well; we have seen our organizations grow so much professionally and we have arts groups that stand alongside the best in the country. In fact, by data, we are in the top 10 theatres of our kind in the country. While there are not as many theatre companies as I would like to see, I do know that the arts community as a whole is a lot stronger and works more strategically as time has gone by. We have amazing leaders in our sector, including our foundations and arts agencies. We have one of the most robust United Arts in the country. We are a city that takes the arts seriously and our local elected officials know that and show strong support for the arts. We have so, so much more room for growth, but looking back 30 years, I can see how we have grown immensely into a valued sector that brings significant dollars into our local economy. It's quite impressive.

What do you think a century-old theatre like Family Stage needs to preserve as it moves into its second century, and what needs to evolve?

Theatre must always be relevant to the times it is living within. The best theatre holds up a mirror to our current society and lets us imagine ways to evolve. Evolution is the key word. To survive for the next 100 years, we must always be evolving. The same programming and infrastructure and business models that worked 50, 25, 10, even five years ago may not work at all in current times, so we must continue being creative and strategic in growing revenue streams and in creating programming that speaks to today. This is not easy work at all and the American theatre field as a whole is currently struggling with sustainability as we strive to be the theatre of today, while always thinking about the theatre of tomorrow. Our 100-year celebration has allowed us the luxury of time to look at the theatre of yesterday and take the best of that with us into the theatre of tomorrow.

What do you want Orlando Family Stage to become for the next generation of young people, families, artists, and educators?

I want us to always be a welcoming space and a place where everyone feels safe to create and think, explore and discuss. I want to be a place where educators and practitioners learn to rise to their highest capabilities. I want to be a place where audiences want to come to be entertained but also to be challenged and learn to look at life from different perspectives. We strive every day to create experiences to encourage bravery and empathy. If we can deliver that to some degree, that is how we measure success and worth and value to our community.

This season includes the world premiere of THE BEST HALLOWEEN EVER alongside the return of PETE THE CAT and titles like THE HOBBIT and DRAGONS LOVE TACOS 2: THE (MU)SEQUEL!. What are you most excited to bring to the stage this year, and what does this lineup say about where Family Stage is headed?

My answer is always the next production is what I'm most excited about! THE BEST HALLOWEEN EVER is going to be a brand-new show that Orlando audiences are the first to see before anyone else in the world, that is exciting. We are working with the playwrights to bring this story, adapted from the book by Barbara Robinson, to the stage. I know that PETE THE CAT and DRAGONS LOVE TACOS are books with characters and stories that our young children are loving today, so the chance to see some of their favorites come to life in front of them is exciting. Those titles are contemporary favorites for young people and I also like to make sure we are presenting classic favorites as well, and THE HOBBIT certainly fills that role. I am very excited to work with the director, designers, production staff, and actors to determine how we create the world and deliver it to our audiences. It's all exciting and that is truly why I am still at the same theatre for 20 years as Artistic Director! It's too much fun and there are still so many stories I want to share!!!

Why do you believe children deserve ambitious, sophisticated theatre that respects their intelligence, and how do you approach building that into your work?

Oh my goodness, this is my soapbox!!!! So many people like to say that if we get children going to arts programming when they are young, then we are building the audience of tomorrow. That is very, very true, but if you look at that statement, where is the value being placed? In the future! So, while that may be true, we cannot get there if we do not produce the best theatre we possibly can for the children of TODAY! Theatre for Young Audiences is often shortened to TYA. Well, the T is theatre and we have to make the absolute most sophisticated theatre we can because a child certainly knows if their intelligence is being insulted. The dramatic stakes for Junie B. Jones to solve her latest predicament are the same dramatic stakes that Willy Loman has in DEATH OF A SALESMAN. The stakes are the most critical things to solve in their current stations of life. So, we must approach the work seriously and not take shortcuts in the storytelling or in the production budget because the audience is "just kids." We approach every project with that level of importance.

How do you think an early experience with great live theatre can shape a child's imagination, empathy, and confidence long-term?

Storytelling has been with us since the caveman days for a reason: we learn from it. We learn how to be better people making better decisions by watching someone else's stories and adventures. We see consequences of mistakes and learn which path we would probably choose to result in positive consequences through story. Books, movies, television, and the performing arts all serve the same function, to teach us to dream, to live, to survive, and to flourish. We learn of other cultures, other perspectives, other worlds through stories. So we are tapping into the innate human need to share and learn from stories. The earlier a child experiences live theatre, they can begin that empathetic journey and learn to apply the power of story and theatre to their everyday lives. By getting involved beyond just being in the audience, but by immersing themselves in creating the story themselves by being in shows and classes, all of these positive, strong attributes are strengthened and promoted.

After 30 years watching young people move through Youth Academy, field trips, camps, and productions into adulthood, what has it meant to witness that generational impact firsthand?

30 years have absolutely solidified the impact of theatre for me. It is not theoretical when I say that I have seen theatre create amazing humans and citizens in our world today who are absolutely stronger because of theatre. This makes the most sense when I say that we have seen many of our young people involved here go on to make their careers as actors, agents, television and movie producers, Broadway performers, publicists, writers, and individual crafts within the entertainment industry. But I have seen teachers who incorporate theatre techniques into their classroom curriculum and prove that students retain knowledge because of that integration. Lawyers and doctors tell me how the arts have made their work more rounded. Business leaders share that theatre has made them better thinkers and project managers. Theatre teaches life skills and how to work collaboratively. Theatre makes you think and think beyond yourself and for the collective whole; that makes a stronger citizen. I know for a fact that theatre kids make the world a better place.

Why does developing new plays and musicals in Orlando matter, and what does it mean to you to see work that began at Family Stage go on to be performed by theatres across the country?

I think this question 100% relates back to the length of tenure and deepening of career. After a while of producing and directing stories already written for the stage, you start to feel a responsibility to add to the field, to the canon, in addition to working on stories that already exist for the medium. We have been at a place for a while where our relationships with playwrights and authors and other theatres over the years translate into working with them all to create new stories for the stage. And we want to specifically create new shows for young audiences, which is a much smaller fraction of new work being developed because there are not as many theatres focused solely on that demographic. We have built a solid reputation of quality work that makes theatremakers trust us to create with them. Theatremakers want the most developed, sophisticated, quality story that can be developed, so if you have that reputation, that you work to maintain with each and every production, then you become trusted partners. It is important to me, our staff and board, that Orlando Family Stage takes its place in creating new work to be shared globally. We are a theatre that has grown to that trusted and revered place that only time and good, consistent work can get you to. So, now, we use our resources, expertise, and platform to create this work that Orlando audiences are privy to seeing before anyone else and then sharing it as widely as possible. It is sustaining the art form; it is our creative way of giving back. I have always operated under the maxim that if you have the capability and awareness, then you have the responsibility. It is not only how I approach my work, but my life.

After 30 years with the theatre, what artistic idea, challenge, or possibility are you still chasing, and what makes you want to try it next?

Oh my gosh, sooooooo much!!!!!! There are so many stories I have on my list that want to be adapted for the stage. There are so many more endeavors to pursue. Theatre and the broader entertainment field is thrilling and fulfilling and an artist always wants to create. I am as old as yesterday and as new as tomorrow and I hope to be creating until the last breath, in whatever shape that takes. Orlando Family Stage is nowhere near the pinnacle of its potential; there is so much work to be done. When André De Shields accepted his Tony Award for HADESTOWN, he said when you get to the top of the mountain is when you look up from the bottom of the next mountain, and I believe that to be true to the core of my soul. Onwards and upwards!!!!!

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