Dr. Christianne Roll spends plenty of time in office H-116.
She lives in Tampa, so once she commutes to the Florida Southern College campus, the Becker Theatre Building is where she works, rests, and literally plays.
This is the start of her 10th year in her slightly below ground level office. It has been her location during her entire time at FSC. This year she is teaching Voice lessons, Musical Theatre Audition, and Vocal Technique.
“My office is truly a home away from home for me, since I spend so much time in the space teaching voice lessons,” she said. “It is filled with things I love - pictures of my family, music, and my singing students!”
She says having a piano in her office is crucial because she uses it when she works with students. Professional headshots of seniors who have performed in various shows adorn a wall near the piano. Other student photos decorate her office as well as photos of her with students.
Pictures of her daughters Brooklyn (13) and Cadence (10) are throughout her office. She tries to update them annually. She also keeps photos of her husband, her parents, and her younger brother in her home away from home.
Dr. Roll considers her Keurig coffee maker to be essential equipment; she loves coffee. But the playbills that adorn one of her office walls are even more special to her. Though he was not a theater fan, her husband, Jacob, accompanied her to numerous Broadway plays when they lived in New York. When they moved from New York 15 years ago, he obtained and framed copies of playbills from shows they had seen together and gave them to her.
Office H-116 feels like a studio apartment. It is spacious, with an unassuming, round table positioned between two stately chairs on the wall that holds the aforementioned playbills. Natural light pours into the room from a window that provides a view of the brick wall and hedges that butt against the sidewalk that runs along the campus on Johnson Avenue. Dr. Roll thinks having an office that is slightly recessed is good for a room that is used for voice lessons.
Choosing a career was easy for Dr. Roll. Her mother was a voice teacher who worked out of a studio that was attached to their house, so she grew up watching her mother teach. Dr. Roll’s friends asked her to play the piano for them occasionally while she was in school. During one of her classes a professor needed someone to play the piano. She volunteered and realized she enjoyed doing it.
A wall of Playbills given to Dr. Roll by her husband, Jacob, helps her to remember their time in New York.
Dr. Roll earned her master’s and then her Doctor of Education in the College Teaching of English in Music and Music Education so she could work with college students. She loves mentoring young people and feels they can use what she shares with them in their professional lives.
“In my discipline, I get to work with my students throughout their entire time in college, freshmen to seniors,” she said. “Watching their growth as artists and scholars is one of the best parts of my career.”
Her door is always open to students, but she suggests they email her to schedule an appointment if they want to be sure she will be available to address their needs.