Judi Rodman Built a Theater Company From a Phone Call. Ten Years Later, Oro Valley Can’t Get Enough.

A Lifelong Calling

Rodman wrote her first play in third grade and cast it with her classmates in the school cafeteria. She never really stopped. By the time she reached college, she had already decided theater would be her life’s work, and she went on to earn a master’s degree in performing arts. Later, she added a master’s and a Ph.D. in psychology, a pairing that served both halves of her career.

She taught psychology at the university level for years, not theater, and one book she regularly assigned was Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning.” Frankl survived Auschwitz after losing his parents and brother in the camps and his wife in Bergen-Belsen, and he credited his survival partly to a manuscript he had written before his imprisonment and had to reconstruct from memory afterward. Rodman still returns to a line Frankl quotes from Nietzsche: “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.”

It’s a philosophy she has leaned on more than once.

Meeting Bill

Rodman met her husband, Bill, at an audition 52 years ago. She was directing a production of “40 Carats” and he showed up, new to theater entirely, looking for something to fill his time. She cast him.

“I never really got the part. I still don’t get my lines right, if you want to know the truth.” — Bill Rodman

They married and built a life around the stage together, moving from show to show even as they raised children and Bill worked as an attorney. Fifty-one years later, they’re still doing it side by side.

A Search for a New Home

They weighed a long list of towns across the country before deciding on Arizona. Mountains mattered most. They’d already owned a second home in Colorado at 9,500 feet, a beautiful spot but not the right fit for the long term.

Oro Valley won them over, in part because of the town’s investment in the arts. Rodman connected early with Hiremath, who talked to her about Oro Valley’s Arts Council, and the fit felt right. The couple bought a house on three and a third acres, made improvements, and settled in. They moved permanently in 2005.

From an Idea to a Decade of Sold-Out Shows

Rodman turned her attention to the idea that became the Oro Valley Theater Company. She gathered a small group of people she’d met around town who shared her interest in the arts, formed a board, and staged the company’s first production not long after. That first show was Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” with Bill in the cast.

Ten years later, OVTC performs only Broadway book shows. No musical revues, no imported acts from out of town. Actors come through open auditions that draw talent from across Tucson, Marana, and Oro Valley, and the ones who land roles get paid a stipend for the work. Because the Gaslight Music Hall isn’t a dedicated theater space, the company also hires a professional stagehand crew to build and strike every set. That arrangement comes with a tradeoff. OVTC rehearses at the Oro Valley Community and Recreation Center and gets only two rehearsals inside the actual venue before opening night, a constraint Rodman has learned to work around.

“We simulate a set, so the actors get used to it. It’s not the same, for sure, but it gives them an idea of where all the pieces are going to be.” — Judi Rodman

The company has grown steadily, and this season OVTC is staging three productions: “The Odd Couple,” “On Golden Pond,” and “Murder on the Orient Express.” Rodman’s own role has narrowed over that time. She once directed every show herself, a slate that ran as high as three a year before settling to one, and eventually she stepped back from directing altogether. This year marks something of a return: she’s directing again for the 10th anniversary season, bringing back the female version of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple,” a show OVTC first staged in its inaugural season.

“I felt I could bring it back and do it justice. I was very much encouraged by people to do this show.” — Judi Rodman

Demand has outpaced the schedule. OVTC sold out its last two productions so consistently that it added a sixth performance to this run, turning what used to be a Thursday night rehearsal into an additional show. The production opens in mid-November, with two performances on both Saturday and Sunday plus single shows Thursday and Friday.

Rodman recommends calling the Gaslight box office directly for the best shot at tickets, since phone orders let staff see what’s already been claimed before assigning seats. Group sales of ten or more receive a discount.

What Directing Takes

Ask Rodman what she loves most about directing and she’ll talk about translation, watching an idea move from her head onto the stage and land with an audience.

“It’s rewarding to see that it got translated, that the audience can get it. Sometimes there’s an aha moment in the audience, and you know you’ve done the job you’re supposed to do.” — Judi Rodman

The hardest part, she said, is simply managing people while staying decisive. She runs a tight rehearsal room, decisive rather than drifting, so the actors always know what comes next, even if keeping that many moving pieces on track isn’t easy.

She traces some of that discipline back to her own start as an actor, long before she ever directed a show.

“Being an actor first does make a difference. You learn about blocking, how to move, where to go. A lot of acting is listening. If you listen carefully, you know what to do instead of just thinking about your next line.” — Judi Rodman

Staying Engaged

Rodman’s academic side never fully separated from her creative one. During her psychology master’s program, she wrote a paper on the difference between engaged and disengaged seniors, a topic that has only grown more personal with time.

“Disengaged people just don’t move as long, and their life isn’t nearly as positive and fulfilling. It’s really important to stay engaged.” — Judi Rodman

That belief runs in the family. Her granddaughter Shea, a junior at the University of Georgia studying toward law school while playing lacrosse and keeping up a running list of to-dos, has heard the philosophy plenty of times growing up.

“She kept saying, ‘Grandma, it’s really important to be productive.’ I told her, you’re speaking to the choir.” — Judi Rodman

For Rodman, the company she built from a car-ride idea a decade ago has become one of the clearest expressions of that philosophy, a way to stay engaged, stay productive, and keep doing the thing she has loved since she was a little girl staging plays in a school cafeteria.

“Any artistic effort is an interpretation of life. If you have any interest in the arts at all, I think it’s a don’t-miss.” — Judi Rodman

The Oro Valley Theater Company’s 10th anniversary production of “The Odd Couple” (female version) opens in mid-November at the Gaslight Music Hall. Tickets and group sale information are available by calling the Gaslight box office.