“Bring a Friend, Bring a Dog”: Laura Rosberg and Big Theater at GDS

Georgetown Day School first opened its doors with a small cadre of exemplary faculty and has worked consistently to meet the standard it set for itself by maintaining a body of outstanding teachers throughout its 80-year history. Among these, certain teachers have stood out, remembered not only for their long-term commitment to providing top-notch education but also for the impact they have had on their students’ future lives and successes. Many are also remembered for possessing unique character traits or peculiar qualities. Laura Rosberg was one such teacher at GDS.

A high school theater director and teacher known for balancing rigorous academic standards with creativity and enterprise, Laura was also known for lovingly referring to her students as “kiddlewinks.” Her refrain, “Bring a Friend, Bring a Dog,” which was meant to encourage people to come to shows, apparently led someone to bring a dog to a performance.

Laura emphasized leadership and collaboration, empowering students to run productions both creatively and financially. She set up a student apprenticeship in which more experienced students took on leadership roles, helping those with less experience. Student producers raised money for shows through advertising and ticket sales rather than relying on financial support from the school.

From the beginning, Laura became known for her bold choices of works to perform and thoughtful educational approach.

In an article about the 2016 production of Peter and the Starcatcher that appeared in DC Theater Review, writer Ravelle Brickman, who referred to the production as “sophisticated family entertainment,” said Laura “wanted to strengthen the teaching component by casting as many of the actors as possible in opposite-gender roles.”

A 2023 Augur Bit article by alum Ethan Wolin ’23 reported that the 2009 production of the musical The Producers, Mel Brooks’s comedy about a plot to profit from a Broadway flop by staging a show that glorifies Adolf Hitler, stirred controversy within the GDS community over whether swastikas should be used in the set design.

“I truly believe we have to give our designers, technicians, and actors sophisticated material and stretch them and challenge them. If you can’t do a show about something that’s real and true and exciting, you don’t have real theater,” Laura told Ethan.

Ethan also quoted Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks as saying about Laura, “Whenever I see, in a playbill or program, somebody from GDS, I always take note of it because I think, ‘Well, if they were studying under Laura, then they got some real training.’”

GDS alums Ethan Slater ’10 and Noah Robbins ’09, the actors co-starring as the two scheming producers, Leo and Max, in the 2009 production, both went on to land leading roles on Broadway.

Swedish actor, playwright, theater scholar, and GDS alum, Hannes Meidal ’97 also studied theater under Laura while at GDS and credits her with influencing his decision to pursue drama and theater as a career. “It is to me still a miracle how Laura always succeeded in intertwining educational challenges with such great artistic professionalism. I have never met a teacher with such a unique capacity to bring out the best in her students.” 

Through her fearless choices, belief in the power of real theater, and commitment to putting her students first, Laura Rosberg helped shape not only productions, but lives.