JOHANNA JANSEN, BROADWAY ROSE’S LONGEST-STANDING VOLUNTEER

On a summer day during Broadway Rose’s very first season, Johanna Jansen sat in the audience to watch Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Her son was one of the Tigard High School interns working on the production. She didn’t know it at the time, but that afternoon would mark the beginning of a relationship that has now spanned more than three decades.

When I asked her how it all started, she shrugged and said, “I just kept coming.” When Johanna tells stories about the early days of Broadway Rose, it feels a little like opening a time capsule. There was open seating. Volunteers tore paper tickets by hand. Concessions could only be sold outside the theater overlooking Durham Road. “It was hard the first few years,” she told me. “They were struggling to get people to come to the shows.”

Today, tickets are scanned with wireless devices, patrons reserve their seats months in advance, and Broadway Rose produces a full season of shows each year. The staff has expanded. The audiences have grown. The operation is larger and more sophisticated than those early days. And yet, as Johanna describes it, the heart of the theatre hasn’t changed. It is still a place where people feel welcomed and genuinely cared for.

Years ago, when Marketing Director Alan Anderson approached her about being a founding member of what would become the Broadway Rose Theatre Guild, she said yes without hesitation. In those early days, the Guild was small but mighty. They hosted events, silent auctions, and provided meals for actors and crew during double performance days. Guild meetings offered a chance for the members to hear experiences from the actors, musicians, designers, and staff that they were helping to support.

“You learn so much about things that happen that you don’t know when you just come to the show,” she told me. That behind-the-scenes access deepened her connection to the theatre. And over time, it helped strengthen Broadway Rose’s foundation of volunteer support.

Johanna has done just about everything. She has ushered. She served as volunteer house manager for children’s productions before it was a paid position. She has sewn costumes, repaired drapes, worked on set pieces, and lovingly assembled scrapbooks preserving decades of Guild history.

As she shared memory after memory, I realized how much of our institutional history lives in her stories. She remembers 600 YMCA students waiting in the lobby at Tualatin High School while a technical issue threatened to cancel the performance—only for the staff to pull it together and start on time. She remembers sewing costumes for The Little Mermaid. She remembers the chaos of children’s shows before assigned seating—and the relief for all when that finally changed.

She has seen beloved productions return—Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream and Always…Patsy Cline more than once—and watched new works like Fly By Night find an audience at the theater. When she talks about big dance numbers, her face lights up. She still vividly recalls the breathtaking staircase moment in The Will Rogers Follies and the tap sensation that was Anything Goes.

When I asked her to choose a favorite show, she refused. “There’s always something good,” she said. “Even if you don’t love the whole production, there’s an actor who’s wonderful. Or the music is fantastic. There’s always something.”

What struck me most during our conversation was this: for Johanna, volunteering has never been about a free ticket or the recognition it could get you. “It has to be more than that,” she told me. “You get so much more back than the hour and a half or two hours you spend here.”

Over the years, she has watched Broadway Rose grow under the leadership of founders Sharon Maroney and Dan Murphy. She has seen the company weather challenges and celebrate milestones—from bone chillingly cold holiday productions at Tualatin High School to power outages at the Deb Fennell Auditorium, where Dan Murphy simply stepped forward and kept the audience laughing until the lights came back on.

When I asked what keeps her coming back, she described something that I’ve heard many others say. “It’s the feeling you get here,” she told me. “I don’t get it when I go to another theater. It’s just different.” There was one story she shared that perfectly captured that feeling. Before her 80th birthday, her sister quietly called the theater to let them know it was coming up. When Johanna arrived at the gala, a birthday card was waiting at her seat. Later in the evening, the production included a special recognition of her milestone. She was stunned. “How did they know?” she laughed. “I know their birthdays! They don’t know mine!” That moment affirmed something she has known for years: this is not just a place where she volunteers. It’s a place where she belongs. “They really treat you well,” she said. “I feel like they really care about me—not what I can do, but about me.”

As someone who has known Johanna first as an actor and now as a staff member, I can say the feeling is mutual. Her name has been spoken with affection and respect for years. She carries the history of this place, but she also carries genuine care for the people who are part of it now.

After decades of service, she still signs up. She still attends meet-the-cast events. She still buys season tickets—sometimes even an extra ticket just to see a show from a different seat in the theater. “It’s so much a part of who I am now,” she told me. “I have to be here.” When I asked what she would say to the next generation of volunteers, her answer was simple: “Just do it.” She paused, then added, “It’s such a small part of your time that you’re giving, and you get so much more back.”

Broadway Rose’s history is often told through its productions. But as I sat across from Johanna listening to her stories, I was reminded that our legacy is also written in the steady, faithful presence of volunteers like her—people who showed up in the early years, stayed through the growing pains, and helped build something lasting.

From open seating and concessions on the sidewalk to sold-out seasons and scanned tickets, Johanna and many others have been there for it all. The theatre has grown and changed, but their commitment has remained the same. In many ways, that quiet devotion is the heartbeat of our story—a reminder that what makes Broadway Rose special isn’t just what happens onstage, but the community that continues to show up, year after year.