Toby Orenstein

Toby Barbara Orenstein (née Press; born May 23, 1937) is an American theater director, producer, and educator. She is the founder of the Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts and its teen performance troupe, the Young Columbians. Orenstein also established Toby's Dinner Theatre, for which she serves as artistic director, and has operated locations in Columbia, Maryland, since 1979 and in Baltimore. Her career began as a teacher for a federal education project initiated by Eleanor Roosevelt, and her work has included developing arts-based community outreach programs for disadvantaged and special-needs children.

Early life and education Toby Barbara Press was born in the Bronx, New York City, on May 23, 1937, to Mildred and Sam Press. Her interest in theater began at a young age. Her first role was in a kindergarten play where she portrayed a pilgrim. By the third grade, she was actively directing shows at school and on playgrounds.

Orenstein was accepted into the High School of the Performing Arts in New York City. After relocating to the Washington, D.C. area, she continued her career in education and theater. In 1965, she began teaching drama and directing at Cynthia Warner's School in Takoma Park, Maryland.

In 1972, Columbia, Maryland, founder James Rouse asked Orenstein to establish a theater school for the new city. In 2009, she launched an outreach program in collaboration with Loyola Clinical Centers that uses theater to assist children with disabilities, including autism and Down syndrome. In 2012, she received the Sue Hess Maryland Arts Advocate of the Year Award from Maryland Citizens for the Arts.

Personal life Toby Press met her husband, Hal Orenstein, while they were both involved with their youth group at Temple Young Israel in the Bronx. They married in 1959, and the couple relocated to the Washington, D.C. area after Hal, an economist, accepted a job there. They have two children, a son, Jeff, born in 1961, and a daughter, Mindy, born in 1963.

In 1962, after her mother died from lupus, Orenstein took in her 15-year-old sister. Her interest in creating programs for children with disabilities is informed by her family experiences, as she has one grandchild with Asperger syndrome (now under the umbrella of autism spectrum disorder) and another with dyslexia. She has incorporated her love of theater into family traditions, including adding choreography to songs during her family's Passover Seder. Orenstein has stated that she considers her work in theater to be her hobby as well as her career.