Toby Orenstein

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. However, she transferred during her junior year to a local high school in the Bronx, where she won an award for "best actress" and directed the senior show. After graduating, she attended Cortland State Teachers College before transferring to Columbia University to enroll in its theater program. She graduated from Columbia University with bachelor's degrees in theater and education. ==Career==

After graduating from Columbia University, Orenstein was selected as one of twelve teachers for the All Day Neighborhood School Project, a federal education program launched by Eleanor Roosevelt to integrate the arts into schools in Harlem. 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 special needs, 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 special needs is informed by her family experiences, as she has one grandchild with Asperger syndrome 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. == References ==