Robin Lynn Smith honored for theater work

Seattle theater educator and director Robin Lynn Smith is the winner of the 2008 Gregory A. Falls Sustained Achievement Award, sponsored by the local drama service organization Theatre Puget Sound.

Smith is a co-founder and the artistic director of Freehold Studio/Theatre Lab, a long-running independent drama school now located in Belltown. She also runs Freehold's drama program for inmates at the Washington Correctional Center for Women, in Gig Harbor. In addition to her teaching career, Smith is an affiliate artist at Intiman Theatre and has directed shows at many local playhouses (Intiman, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Empty Space Theatre, etc.) and at theaters Off Broadway.

The Gregory A. Falls award, named for the late founder of ACT Theatre, honors individuals who devote their "time, energy and talent to Seattle's theater community" and whose careers "have had an influence on theatre locally and beyond."

Smith will receive her award at a reception slated for 5:30 p.m. May 19 in the Alki Room, Seattle Center. It's open to the public; $35 (more details: 206-770-0370 or www.tpsonline.org).

Misha Berson, Seattle Times theater critic