Roberts Lived for Musical Theater, Teaching

Frank Roberts used to spend hours upon hours over weeks and months fine tuning the Arlington High School musical.

The high school's theater arts teacher for 35 years, Roberts would sit in the middle of the auditorium during rehearsals, clipboard in hand, methodically taking notes until every aspect was perfect. Then, on the night of the performance, he would watch his students from the back sound booth, slipping out the door afterwards before he could ever be seen.

"In all the years I've been here," said Pasquale Tassone, who conducted the shows, "we couldn't even get him to go out and take a bow."

Roberts, a mentor to hundreds of Arlington High alumni, including comedian Dane Cook and Tony Award-winning costume designer Susan Hilferty, died last month, on Tuesday, Aug. 17. He was 69.

"He loved theater as much as anything in his life, besides me," his wife, Joanna Roberts, said recently.

"He just lived it, cared about it," she said. "He wanted to do the best productions he possibly could, wanted to give the kids the best experience they possibly could have."

Tassone, the interim head of the performing arts department, taught alongside Roberts for many years. He remembered his late colleague as an unassuming and private man who loved the works of composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, Frank Loesser's "The Most Happy Fella," and Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific."

"He had an encyclopedic knowledge of musical theater," Tassone said.

Roberts tried acting in New York City before deciding to become a teacher. He also taught English and speech at Arlington High, although the vast majority of his years there were spent building the theater arts program and directing the fall play and spring musical.

He was a true perfectionist and demanded a lot out of his students, according to Tassone, but he almost never raised his voice or second guessed a performance.

His shows won awards and students he mentored went on to Broadway and Hollywood.

Before he met Roberts, Cook was a shy freshman who refused to go on stage, Tassone said. It took two years of coaxing, but eventually Roberts got Cook to play Danny in the high school's 1990 production of "Grease." The two remained close, talking on the phone about once a week until Roberts' death, according to Joanna.

It wasn't just professional actors and actresses that benefited from his teaching, she said.

"Teenagers went through that program and discovered who they were," his wife said.

Roberts retired in 2001. He directed Loesser's "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," one of his favorites, as his last show, using Hilferty's Broadway costumes.

A Woburn resident, Roberts had been working as the public relations and special projects coordinator at the Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston in Waltham.

A memorial service in Roberts' honor has been scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 7, at Reagle. The service has been tentatively scheduled for 3 p.m.