Thursday afternoon, many people will gather in the RiverPark Center lobby to celebrate Roxi Witt, who will retire at the end of June after 27 years with the performing arts center.
Witt has been with RiverPark Center since it began and said she does believe it is time for “new blood” in the organization, although she continuously compliments the staff that she said runs the place.
In high school, Witt loved theatre but attended Murray State University to work toward a political science degree and then become a lawyer. However, while at MSU, she became involved with their theatre program and changed to a political science minor with a teaching certificate.
After graduation, her father said she needed to get a special education teaching certificate, but after a friend told her he was going to get his Master’s in Business Administration at the University of Kentucky — and after a conversation with a MSU theatre teacher who asked her why she wanted to get a special education degree — Witt said that she began thinking about an MBA herself.
Since she had not taken any undergraduate business classes while at MSU, she had to take 32 hours before taking graduate-level business classes, but in two years, she graduated with her MBA from MSU.
Witt returned to Owensboro and worked part-time at Theatre Workshop of Owensboro before taking a full-time position at the Western Kentucky Small Business Development Center. She was interested in “many things” while working in economic development, including writing grants, learning about the government and economy and meeting community members and local government officials.
At night and on weekends, Witt volunteered with Theatre Workshop of Owensboro and even double cast two productions of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” which had 80-plus actors involved in two casts. She also helped create the youth theatre program at TWO.
“Still to this day, those parts of the program are part of my fondest memories,” Witt said. “I met people around town and got to know them when they were kids and now they are adults…like Joseph Berry and Mark Moore.”
In 1989, when it was announced a performing arts center would be built in Owensboro, Witt reflected on the work she had done while in graduate school at Murray, which had been “the best training” for what would be needed at the new center.
“I knew that was where I wanted to work,” Witt said.
She wrote a letter to Rodney Berry, then-president of the RiverPark Center foundation, in the beginning of 1991 and in late 1991, she wrote another. It worked because, in January of 1992, Witt began as Director of Operations for the RiverPark Center that would open in September 1992. She helped in the hiring of all full-time staff, choosing the furniture and creating the policies and procedures for the center.
When the center opened, she realized she could not do the job alone and hired an assistant who worked in her office along with her. Together they created the schedules, learned how to set up for events and billing.
“One of the key things I say to the staff is that we have wedding receptions, proms, corporate business meetings…and they are ho-hum for us,” Witt said, describing that they have many of these events. “Our responsibility is to make them as perfect as we can for those individuals. The motto is ‘Where Memories Are Made’ and this is truly the place where I think it happens.”
Witt describes the bride who has her wedding there or the child who sees his first production. She acknowledges that she is who gets the accolades for an incredible event or Broadway season, but she said it is the staff who has done all of the work.
“The staff has been amazing,” Witt said. “A lot of the staff has been here a long time — they actually know what I am going to say before I say it.”
Serving as Director of Operations for several years, Witt has also held the title of General Manager before settling in on Executive Director. She has been behind the scenes working the headset for the International Bluegrass Museum Awards and for any of Goldie Payne’s shows that have been staged at the RPC, but she said that most often, she can just as easily troubleshoot from listening to the staff on the radio that is behind her office desk and she knows when she needs to step in when things get heated in the moment.
On certain occasions, Witt stands in the balcony and said she is still in awe of what the RiverPark Center has to offer.
For Thursday’s reception, Witt has special guests coming to town to help celebrate and honor her retirement — her college best friend from Kansas City and her college roommate from Louisville — along with community members who will attend the celebration.
At the end of the month, after the Air National Guard Band of the South plays a free concert on June 29, Witt will turn in her keys and relinquish her parking space, two things she said will seem odd to no longer have.
“I’m gonna take a deep breath,” Witt said.
And then she is going to dive into her next project — video editing. Taking home movies from the past, she plans to “make them into something somebody would watch.” She also will continue to care for her 96-year-old father who lives in Owensboro — and she will travel.
Through it all, Witt said she never wanted to go on tour with a production or work on Broadway, because once the production was set, it was the same thing day after day.
“I like the process,” Witt said.
Referring to the RiverPark Center as the community’s building is very important to Witt, and she has worked with the staff and community to make sure it offers something for everybody. From Friday After 5 to Movies on the River to all of the productions staged in Cannon Hall, Witt praises the community for the support they have offered through the years and even poses the question of how different downtown Owensboro would feel and look without the RiverPark Center being part of the landscape for the last 27 years.
The search has begun for the next executive director and on-site interviews will begin next week. Witt said the board is hoping to have someone in place in September when the season kicks off.
“The community always steps up and takes care of things,” Witt said. “This is the community’s building and that’s what I don’t want to see lost.”
