ABOUT US
Ridgefield Theater Barn History
In 1965, a handful of Ridgefield residents banded together to form a small theater group dedicated to providing community theater. This organization grew into the Ridgefield Workshop for the Performing Arts and is now known as the Ridgefield Theater Barn. Housed in a rustic converted dairy barn leased from the town of Ridgefield, the Barn continues to produce an ongoing series of comedies, dramas, and musicals. We maintain a production schedule of four shows per year, with performers chosen through open auditions. The cast and crew of every show run the gamut from raw amateurs to seasoned professionals.
All participants, whether on stage or off, are volunteers. We are actors, dancers, musicians, seamstresses, carpenters, singers, electricians, and individuals who just offer willing pairs of hands to do anything from painting scenery to taking tickets at the door. Our compensation comes in the form of good times, camaraderie, and the satisfaction gained from learning new things, being part of a team, and staging a quality production. The Ridgefield Theater Barn is excited about its upcoming season—its 60th year! With cabaret seating at candlelit tables, we offer superior entertainment, so BYO refreshments and join us!
Pamme Jones
Executive director
Pamme came onboard as Executive Director in September 2017. Prior to being Executive Director, her service to the RTB included two years as President of the board of directors and two years as the box office manager. Her transition from a career in flowers and wedding/event planning into theater full time was natural. As a lifelong performer, the marriage of flowers and theater as a profession was a rare blessing where two passions could be served. Pamme took a 16-year break from both her career and performing to be home in Ridgefield with her husband, raising their three children, Sophie, Evan and Grant. She has been a performing member in the RTB resident Improv troupe since 2008. She and her husband John are not quite empty nesters, and Pamme continues to perform as an actor, improviser and singer on a regular basis. In 2019 she launched her one-woman cabaret show. Pamme is the event coordinator for and serves on the artistic advisory board of The Ridgefield Independent Film Festival, a member of Compassionate Ridgefield and the Ridgefield Arts Council, an active member of the Western Connecticut Cultural Alliance and was named to Ridgefield Magazine’s “Ridgefield’s Top 25 in 2019.” Her commitment to the RTB grows as an extension of her fierce belief in their mission and being able to incubate a space where tolerance, inclusion, education and growth are fostered through participation in live theater. To be able to do this in our beautiful theater in the culturally rich and idyllic town of Ridgefield, CT is icing on the cake.
Gina Pulice
Operations Manager
Gina Pulice has been making theater for 35 years. She is a writer, podcaster, performer, and director, currently co-hosting the podcast I Survived Theatre School. She received her B.F.A. from DePaul University in Chicago before heading back to her native California, where she worked for Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Traveling Lantern Theatre, was a company member at the inception of Berkeley’s Shotgun Players, and taught Drama at Pacific Academy Nomura School, as well as in the UC Berkeley Summer Drama Intensive. With Shotgun, she served as creative director for their black box projects and created, directed, and performed in several original and established works. Gina holds a Masters degree in Social Work from Loyola University, where she was President of the Graduate Student Alliance. She worked as a clinical social worker for 13 years, in both inpatient and outpatient settings, specializing in Dialectical Behavior Therapy. She took a hiatus from working outside the home in 2013 in order to raise her three children. Locally, she has directed for Thrown Stone theatre company and served as their Company Manager. She has also served as Board President of the Theatre Artists Workshop. Gina lives in Ridgefield with her husband, Aaron, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, and their three kids – Isaac, Jacob, and Clarissa.
Board of Directors
Lisa Riggs Hobbs, MT-BC, LPCA
BOARD PRESIDENT
Lisa is a graduate of Ridgefield High School, Class of ’86. A musician with 45 years of experience, she has worked as a music director, vocal accompanist, school music teacher, private piano teacher, and performer. For six years, Lisa worked as a substitute music teacher, accompanist, and theater music director at St. Luke’s School in New Canaan. Lisa holds a BA in English Literature from Fairfield University, an MAT in Music, K-12 from Manhattanville College, and a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a specialization in Music Therapy from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. Lisa credits her experiences playing cello in the Ridgefield Youth Orchestra and the school musical “pit” orchestras under Ridgefield’s Music Man, Charles Spire, as seminal to her passion for the arts. Lisa has served on the boards of the First Presbyterian Nursery School of New Canaan, the United Way of New Canaan, the Summer Theater of New Canaan, and the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County. Lisa lives in New Canaan, CT with her husband Scott and children Jack, Charlie & Ellie.
Gregory McLaughlin
Board vice-president
Greg is Lead Senior Counsel and Market General Counsel for IBM’s US State & Local Government Market, where he manages and advises on transactions with US publicly owned entities outside of the Federal space. Greg has over 14 years as an IBM lawyer, as both transactional and litigation counsel. As outside counsel before joining IBM –first at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, then at Wiggin and Dana LLP –Greg litigated or otherwise provided representation in a wide variety of substantive legal disciplines, ranging from antitrust and intellectual property to securities and white-collar criminal defense. Greg also clerked for Judge (and fmr. US Secretary of Homeland Security) Michael Chertoff on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Paulette Layton
BOARD Treasurer
With over 25 years of experience in the corporate world, Paulette is a Project Manager and Certified Healthcare Constructor. She has an MA in Humanities from New York University and is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Paulette has been on the board of the Ridgefield Theater Barn since 2009 and serving as the Vice President since 2011. However, her non-profit experience began in 1992 when she spent a year teaching community English classes in Transylvania. Upon her return to the states, she co-founded the Hungarian Hope Gala Ball (Reménység Bál), an annual fundraising event which she co-chaired for 10 years, that recognized local leaders of the Hungarian community and benefited educational organizations in regions abroad where Hungarians live as minorities. Paulette has resided in Ridgefield since 2012 and cherishes the sense of community the town offers, as well as the overwhelming cultural life, of which she is proud to be a part.
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Lisa Cambridge-Mitchell
Board secretary
Lisa Cambridge-Mitchell is the founder of Persist in Joy, LLC, a premier coaching, and leadership development firm championing the success of BIPOC men and women in creative industries. Lisa started her firm after 23+ years of guiding the music success of household names like Mary J. Blige, TLC, P!NK, Usher, OutKast, Ciara, Toni Braxton, Anthony Hamilton, Snoop Dogg, CeeLo Green, Miguel, G-Eazy, Tinashe and many more. Despite a long-term career as a senior executive in the music business, Lisa felt underutilized and frustrated by the lack of clear advancement opportunities for women. “From the beginning, I defined my success by my ability to help artists tap into their greatness. As an entrepreneur, Director, Vice President, and Senior Vice President, I guided artist development, built dynamic teams. I led multi-million-dollar strategies for Uptown Records, LaFace Records, Jive Records, and RCA Records. There is no one else in the development and leadership space with my experience.”
Lisa, a graduate of the University of Virginia and a certified iPEC Leadership Index Master Practitioner, is also a refugee advocate and serves on several social activism boards, including Danbury Area Refugee Association (DARA), Ridgefield Allies, and Brilliant Minds Collective. She lives in Ridgefield, CT, with her husband, young son, and rescue hound, Steph Curry.
Bruce Apar
Bruce Apar is a veteran publishing executive whose career spans Manhattan, Hollywood, and Westchester. He is Editorial Director and Associate Publisher of River Journal and Editor of Peekskill Herald, in addition to ghostwriting motivational books for the ForbesBooks imprint and reviewing local theater for BroadwayWorld. Bruce previously published national entertainment industry periodicals for Disney and Variety, produced the Video Hall of Fame gala honoring filmmakers such as James Cameron, and served as Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of North County News.
Deeply committed to community service, Bruce has held leadership roles with the Yorktown and Hudson Valley Gateway Chambers of Commerce, the New York Press Association, and several hospital and arts boards. In 2024, he was named Volunteer of the Year by the Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce and recently completed a decade of board service with Axial Theatre, where he also performs. He and his wife Elyse manage the Harrison Apar Field of Dreams Foundation in memory of their son, supporting recreation and education initiatives in Westchester and beyond.
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Timothy Huber
Timothy Huber has spent more than 30 years with a global professional services firm, holding roles in audit and tax, software development, corporate IT, technology procurement, and contracts management. Based in Connecticut, he currently manages a Contract Lifecycle Management transformation initiative in the firm’s Records & Contracts group.
From 2010 to 2017, Timothy served as Pastor of Worship & the Arts at a large church in Bethel, Connecticut, overseeing music, technology, and theater ministries while earning his master’s in Transformational Leadership from Bethel Seminary. A Seattle native with dual degrees in Accounting and Computer Science from Seattle Pacific University, he has been active in community theater as an actor and director for more than two decades. He is a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Brookfield, a proud father and grandfather, and a Danbury resident since 2003.
David Michael Tate
