Ilyse Robbins: Actress, Teacher And Choreographer

Belmont Patch's new Sunday feature, "Meet Your Neighbors," is just that – discovering more about fellow residents or people who work in town and make the community a nice place to live.

Who?

Ilyse Robbins of Washington Street

What?

Actress, teacher, director and choreographer

Her story:

Ilyse Robbins has the good fortune of enjoying a full career in the theater and raising a family at the same time.

The Belmont resident and mother of two decided when she was just a child that she wanted a career in the dramatic arts. She began tap dancing when she was four years old, was in her first play in the third grade and sang in choruses throughout junior- and senior-high school.

For the past 20 years, Robbins has been a professional actress, director and choreographer working for various theaters in the area. In addition, she is an adjunct professor at Wheelock College where she teaches courses on the history of jazz dance and critical thinking through movement.

“I knew I wanted to have a family so that’s why I didn’t go to New York City,” said Robbins who, with her husband, Glen Mohr, moved from Watertown to Belmont almost four years ago.

“It’s easier in Boston to piece together a life in the theater and raise a family,” she said. “My work has progressed, with one thing leading to another.”

But being a resident in the Boston area does not ensure success in the hugely competitive theater world.

Study and careful planning

Robbins prepared well for her acting career and has training that allows her a schedule of several jobs at once and still ample time to spend with her husband and their daughter, Abby, who will be starting at Chenery Middle School in the fall, and their son, Bennett, who attends Burbank Elementary.

After growing up and graduating high school in Worcester, Robbins attended Northwestern University where she received a degree in theater arts. She then went to London and studied at the British American Drama Academy.

When she returned home, Robbins enrolled at Harvard University where she earned a masters degree in education.

 “With a background in education and dramatic training, it’s easier to get many types of jobs,” she said.

A triple threat

And having the ability to act, dance and sing is also a part of Robbins’ success. With those skills, she has been cast in straight dramatic productions as well as musical theater that she describes as her “bread and butter.”

Robbins calls herself a dancer and actress “who can also sing.”

She started as a dancer so that’s her “comfort zone” but she’s totally comfortable with straight drama, too.

She enjoys performing in comedies, musicals and doing commercial work.

Perhaps what Robbins most loves about her life in the theater is the chance to submerge herself into the character she is playing.

“I love the process of learning about a character, putting everything together and then sharing that with an audience,” she said. 

 “Theater can be a great learning tool but also a tremendous relief for the stresses of every day life,” Robbins said.

That’s one of the reasons she has so thoroughly enjoyed being the director and choreographer for the Stoneham Theatre’s production of “42^nd Street” that opened May 5 and runs until May 29.

“This is such a joyous show,” Robbins said. “I’ve worked for the Stoneham Theatre for three or four years, doing several shows a season, and this one is the best selling one so far.”

It’s been a lot of labor – albeit of love -- directing and coming up with at least a dozen dances for a cast of 19 as well as duets and solo pieces.

The cast was in rehearsals for three weeks before opening the show but Robbins started working months ago: researching the text, traveling to Lincoln Center to study the original show from the early 1980s, watching the movie and listening to the music and examining the script.

As with other shows she has directed or choreographed, that level of detailed study is the prerequisite for adapting her ideas to the confines of whatever theater space the show will take place, teach the script and dances to the cast and refine them as rehearsals progress.

Robbins said her cast features extremely well trained dancers but she has worked on other productions where the skill level was not as high.

“I’m known in Boston as a choreographer for non-dancers and small spaces,” she said. “I know how to make non-dancers feel comfortable and can explain things well in addition to visualizing a scene in any context.”

For additional information on ticket availability for 42^nd Street, visit www.stonehamtheatre.org