Trailblazing theater artist Anita Ruth hangs up her baton

"Can we not use the word 'retire?'" suggested music director Anita Ruth.

Fair enough. Ruth is "stepping away" after 17 years at Artistry, where she'll conduct "Shrek" through Aug. 14.

Ruth is saying goodbye to the grind of rehearsals, although if you're directing "Fun Home," "Assassins" or "West Side Story," she'll talk. After five decades as a music director — starting at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres in the early '70s, when female directors were rare — she's ready to do other things.

"After 'Shrek,' we're immediately getting in the trailer and going to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan," said Ruth, 76, who grew up in Crystal. She'll be joined by her wife, Joan Griffith, a teacher and multi-instrumentalist who's usually in Ruth's bands, and dogs Jack and Rosie. There's also a trip to Antarctica this winter.

That sounds like "stepping down" but, otherwise, relaxation isn't on Ruth's menu. She's co-writing two musicals. She and Melissa Hart want to produce rarely staged shows in homes. She and Griffith will resume the concerts they performed from their south Minneapolis porch, along with talented pals. There's a podcast collaboration and literacy/education projects with pal T. Mychael Rambo.

They're the sort of ventures that accumulate when you've wanted to be in musical theater since an early '60s family trip to New York that included "The Sound of Music" on Broadway.

"They rolled out Mary Martin on that rock and that was it for me," said Ruth, in her flower-filled backyard near Bde Maka Ska.

Actually, her music career started earlier, when she was 10. (The following conversation has been edited for clarity.)

Q: Did you come from a musical family?
A: My parents would send me to my grandmother in the summer to take piano lessons every day. I was terrified of her, of course. She was really that old school — if you can make 'em cry, then you did a good job. But I never had the ambition to be [a concert pianist, like her grandmother]. Now, I'm extremely grateful I learned to play. Instead of listening to bedtime stories, I would have to recite the chords and all the different inversions.

Q: You started gigging as a teenager, with community theaters and revues such as the First Nighters?
A: I just kind of happened to be in the right places at the right times and fortunately had people who said, "Can you do this?" And I would say, "OK." I heard that Bloomington Civic Theatre [now called Artistry] needed a piano player because theirs hurt her back. [Director] John Command was there and also in the First Nighters.

Q: You were there a few years before Chanhassen Dinner Theatres began in 1968?
A: Gary Gisselman, at Bloomington, was chosen to be the artistic director of Chanhassen and we were all like, "Take me, take me." A lot of people from Bloomington went.

Q: That's where you shifted from pianist to music director?
A: The same year my mom died, my best friend Carolee Fariday died, 1972. So we did a benefit at Chanhassen for the Cancer Society in honor of her and it was incredible. I did the orchestrations, which I had not done before, and we had a big band and we made a lot of money. Right after that, Gary said, "Could you make Chanhassen's band sound like that?" And I said, "Sure." So then I was the music director.

Q: Did the all-male band resist a female leader?
A: There was no pushback. It was completely collaborative. In the pit, unless the music director just can't do it, the musicians know their job is to interpret what's in front of them and follow the director.

Q: You've said "A Little Night Music" was a Chanhassen landmark. You were indirectly part of its 1973 world premiere?
A: Len Cariou did tons and tons of shows at the Guthrie [starting in 1966]. I was his piano player. Jon Cranney, who I was living with at the time, was the production manager at the Guthrie, and so I knew Len. He auditioned for "A Little Night Music" in New York, so he would go back and forth before he got that gig. The first time he came back, he brought "Now," his part of the "Now/Later/Soon" trio, and it was in Stephen Sondheim's handwriting! He said, "Help me with this?" I said, "OK." [Cariou would earn a Tony nomination.]

Q: You and Chanhassen parted ways in 1988?
A: Twenty years is enough. But it was a great job. You could live in the city and have a lovely house and a pretty good life.

Q: You freelanced all over the place, including Ruby's Cabaret, Ballet of the Dolls, Children's Theatre Company, VocalEssence and overseas projects. What returned you to Bloomington in 2005?
A: John Command said, "We're doing 'Follies,'" and I said, "Where do I sign?" Thank God for John Command, and I'd like you to put that in the paper. They didn't pay hardly anything. It was a community orchestra. But they had a lot of players and there is something about being able to do the complete orchestrations that, say, Leonard Bernstein wrote for "On the Town." [At Chanhassen, Ruth re-orchestrated scores for eight to 10 players.] For "A Little Night Music," I had 22 musicians. Three French horns!

Q: You worked again with Chanhassen musicians, some of whom returned for this final Artistry show?
A: Yup. The [13-person] band I have for "Shrek" is almost entirely first-call [ie., top-notch] musicians and they're working for less than half what they would get at Chanhassen or Children's Theatre. But they want to be there because you get to do the full orchestrations.

Q: What are you going to miss?
A: My orchestra. The Chan band — we were really tight then and a lot of us still are. And in Bloomington, we have formed a very tight family. Getting to come out and express ourselves together? It means a lot.

Q: And it still will?
A: Joan and I have played music together every day of the pandemic. I've learned so much from her. And I get to do what I've always wanted to do. So I'm practicing a lot of gratitude.

'Shrek'

Who: By David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori. Directed by Angela Timberman.

When: 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Aug. 14.

Where: Artistry, 1800 W. Old Shakopee Road, Bloomington.

Protocol: Masks required.

Tickets: $18-$50, artistrymn.org/shrek.