Desirée Roots, former artistic director of community at Virginia Rep, has joined the leadership team of ATLAS Partnership. Roots made history nearly two years ago as the first Black leader to obtain an executive role (non-interim) at a major theater in Virginia.
ATLAS was founded nine months ago by Emily Cole-Jones, Bruce Miller (senior advisor), and Phil Whiteway (senior advisor), each of whom parted ways with Virginia Rep.
“It’s a joy to continue to work within the community that has always embraced me,” states Roots. “I feel like I’m coming home again.” Roots first began working with Miller and Whiteway decades ago, when she was 16 years old. She sought out and accepted an internship with Theatre IV, the nonprofit children’s theater they founded in 1975. Theatre IV joined forces with Barksdale Theatre in 2012 to become Virginia Rep.
The two leaders subsequently formed ATLAS Partnership with Emily Cole-Jones, Virginia Rep’s former Director of Development. The small nonprofit will be focusing on a program that will include four projects during the coming year. These projects are:
- Gabriel
- Walking the Line
- Plays & Playmakers
- We the People.
ATLAS is a nonprofit, proactive, theater-based historical society. Roots, who will serve as program director, will co-lead the company with Cole-Jones, who serves as managing director. Cole-Jones added, “ATLAS exists for the benefit of all area theaters.”
What Is ATLAS Partnership?
“ATLAS Partnership is not a new theater,” states Whiteway. “It hopes to achieve its work in partnership with existing theaters.”
ATLAS is an anagram derived from Allied Theatre Legacy Artists and Supporters. The Mission is “to recognize and respect, honor and protect the legacy assets of professional theater in Central Virginia.” As found on their website, their “Vision is that current and future generations will continue to steward and benefit from Central Virginia’s rich theatre history, important legacy programs, and physical assets for decades to come.”
Cole-Jones adds, “A rich theater history and tradition have long defined our region, bolstered our economy, and empowered Virginia’s children, families and schools. These assets have established a legacy of which many are unaware and/or take for granted. As exciting new approaches, ideas and visions take shape, we feel a simultaneous sense of urgency to steward the work, programs and contributions of those who have gone before, on whose shoulders we all stand.”
ATLAS has been working on various community engagement efforts, including the publication of Full Circle, a free weekly e-newsletter that “keeps readers in the loop of RVA professional theater,” hoping to address the decline in arts coverage across all media.
Within the coming year, ATLAS will also celebrate and honor the seventieth anniversary of Barksdale Theatre’s first production at Hanover Tavern, and the 50th Anniversary of the founding of Theatre IV as Virginia’s first professional children’s theater.
“I’m very blessed,” states Roots, “to have landed so quickly in such a responsible and nurturing environment, with such good friends. I look forward to many future years in service to our community.”
Learn more about ATLAS Partnership at www.atlaspartnership.org.
