ABOUT TOTL
The TOTL Theatre Company is always dedicated to producing the highest quality productions for the community. Since it’s founding in 2006, TOTL has produced 43 productions for Garrett Co. MD and the surrounding areas. Over the years, TOTL has provided youth camps, commissions for original works, summer internships for young actors, and salaried work for local performers. TOTL highly values their fundamental philosophy that theatre, and all of the performing arts, have the power to shape and improve the quality of life in a community. While the US economy continues to forecast a potentially dismal time for arts, the TOTL Theatre Company chooses to weather the situation by “staying the course” it elected in 2006.
Mission
Established in 2006, Theatre on the Lake is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) company dedicated to educational activities designed to explain and explore the processes of the theatrical arts: foster, promote and increase the public knowledge and appreciation of the arts; encourage all community members to be a lifelong learner in the arts; support and promote the school-to-work initiatives of the local public school systems; and engage children, youth and adults of all ability levels in theatrical activities and productions that utilize and celebrate the uniqueness of everyone.
MEET THE FOUNDER
Lynn holds a Master of Arts degree in Theatre from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. In 1977, she and her husband and their new son, Aaron, relocated to Columbia, Maryland. In the 18 years there, Lynn performed and designed professionally from 1978 to 1986. Lynn was in the inaugural company of Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia, designed for the Wax Museum (Washington, D.C.), the University of Maryland and the Lazy Susan Dinner Theatre (Woodbridge, Virginia). She was the director of the Columbia School of Theatrical Arts during the 1980’s and taught at Centennial High School for 9 years. In 1995, Lynn and her growing family relocated to rural West Virginia. She directed the Ecumenical Youth Ministry in Oakland, Maryland until 2001. For the past 20 years, Lynn has been the director of theatre programs at Preston High School. In 2000 she began the Preston County Summer Theatre and the Preston County Camp of the Arts. She and her students have composed 10 plays for presentation at the River City Festival in Rowlesburg, West Virginia; she is the author of six Theatre for Youth plays under the title of The Adventures of Fledgly, and she and her daughter, Leah, wrote and composed the musical, Mabel’s Story, presented in the 2011 season. Most of Lynn’s career has been spent in educational theatre on the collegiate and secondary levels. She has taught on the faculties of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Howard Community College (Columbia, MD), Mount St. Mary’s College (Emmitsburg, MD), and Frostburg State University (Frostburg, MD). Lynn lives with her husband, Michael, in Aurora, West Virginia. Lynn wants to give a special “thank You” to her two daughters, Leah and Meghan, who have faithfully been with her throughout the 12 seasons she was with the TOTL Theatre Company.
Onward and upward!