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A salute to Pat Briggs
National group honors former Palo Alto Children's Theatre director

by Rebecca Wallace

A national children's theater organization is honoring Pat Briggs for her 49 years as director of the Palo Alto Children's Theatre.

The Children's Theatre Foundation of America is scheduled in August to present Briggs with its Medallion Award, which honors "significant artistry and/or achievement impacting the imagination of children and youth."

Based in Indiana, the 52-year-old organization funds American theater and other arts-related programs. The group has been presenting the Medallion Award annually since 1992.

Other honorees this year include the Childsplay theater group in Arizona and the Rainbow Company Youth Theatre in Las Vegas. In past years, arts-education programs, writers and producers have been among those honored.

Briggs is scheduled to receive the award at an Aug. 6 ceremony in San Francisco.

Briggs retired from the Palo Alto Children's Theatre in 2008. She was later honored by the City Council with an official proclamation at a meeting last year.

Former council member Jack Morton said at the meeting, "There are some people in this world that walk into your life and leave you with a permanent memory of the good we can do when we put our hearts to it."