Rhoda Klitsner’s “Follow Your Dream” Fund  

This fund was established in memory of Rhoda Klitsner, artistic director of the Diablo Light Opera Company. Rhoda, who died April 19, 2003, of multiple myeloma, was the guiding light of the company for 42 years. She joined DLOC, which had been a Gilbert and Sullivan group, in 1962 as a choreographer for their first Broadway style musical comedy, Brigadoon. Starting with The Most Happy Fella in the fall of 1962, Rhoda began both directing and choreographing most of the shows she was involved in.

The national touring company of the musical Oklahoma!, choreographed by Agnes DeMille, came through Sacramento when Rhoda was a young ballet dancer in training. She was entranced with the show, especially the dancing, and dreamed that one day she would dance in a Broadway show choreographed by Agnes Demille.

After being married to Stu Klitsner on February 3, 1952, the couple took off the next summer for New York in their 1950 Ford convertible to follow her dream. After several years of struggle, Rhoda’s dream finally came true when she was cast by Agnes DeMille in a Broadway show called A Girl in Pink Tights, starring the French singer and dancer, Jeanmaire.

Rhoda and Stu moved to Walnut Creek in the fall of 1957 to raise their family. Rhoda felt so fortunate to have found DLOC and to have had the opportunity to develop her talent for directing and choreographing. She found tremendous joy in working with the other families involved in DLOC’s shows, and pride in the artistic achievements of the company. However, she never forgot that one of the reasons she was so content was that she had followed her dream, and so she always encouraged young talent to do likewise.

We know Rhoda would have been very pleased that the contributions of her family and friends, in her memory, helped other young talent to follow their dreams.

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