First Stage Children’s Theater
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
(August 2007)

Artistic Director: Jeff Frank
Managing Director: Robert Goodman

First Stage Children’s Theater is Milwaukee’s premier, professional family theater. Founded in 1987, the mission of the company is to touch hearts and transform lives by creating exceptional, professional theater experiences for young people and families; offering academy training that fosters life skills through stage skills; and providing dynamic in-school education programs that promote learning through theater. A season includes six mainstage plays, two First Steps plays that are geared toward preschoolers and one touring production. With more than 300 performances annually, First Stage is one of the five largest professional children’s theater companies in the United States and the second largest theater company in Milwaukee.

Currently, First Stage is collaborating with Oregon Children’s Theatre to co-commission a script of Lois Lowry’s most recent novel, GOSSAMER.

The companies have many commonalities that make them ideal partners: a commitment to age appropriate casting, acting schools that prepare students for the stage, youth involvement in the writing process, a commitment to develop new work and programming that gives voice to the disenfranchised. The Artistic Directors of both theaters for youth, Stan Foote, of Oregon Children’s Theatre, and Jeff Frank, of First Stage Children’s Theater, share a high regard for Lowry’s work and a common vision for GOSSAMER.  Foote and Frank have a mutual respect for each other’s work and each other’s companies that moves them to partner on this project and many other projects in the future. They cemented their partnership at New Visions/New Voices 2006 and commissioned Lowry to adapt her book into a play. This will be the first play two-time Newbery Medal-winning author Lowry has written.

As the newest dream-giver, Littlest must learn to help humans through the challenges of life by offering them dreams collected from the fragments of their memories. She must also protect them from the evil Sinisteed and the nightmares they inflict. It is a big job for such a tiny being, but with the help of her mentor, she gives strength to a lonely older woman and the troubled young boy she is caring for, helping them to face their histories and to move beyond them to new places of hope.

From August 13 to 15, First Stage will bring author Lois Lowry and Oregon Children’s Theatre’s Foote to Milwaukee for the first of three script development workshops. The directors and actors will work on sections of the script with Lowry present. There will be a full reading of the script and a discussion will follow. This process will afford Lowry time and insight allowing her to further develop the script.

The second workshop will take place in Portland on March 10, 2008. First Stage’s Frank will travel to attend this staged reading.

First Stage and Oregon Children’s Theatre are submitting GOSSAMER to the New Visions/New Voices program at the Kennedy Center in April 2008. With the exception of the few workshops already planned, GOSSAMER is being created in the digital world of e-mail and phone as the collaborators are spread across the country. Through the workshop, the collaborators hope to gather insight on balancing the fantasy and reality in this play. At times they are separate, but fantasy and reality must also collide in complex ways.

First Stage plans to bring GOSSAMER to the stage in September 2008, and Oregon Children’s Theatre will present GOSSAMER in October 2008.

GOSSAMER is not the first time First Stage has brought one of Lowry’s books to the stage. In January 2007, First Stage Children’s Theater performed a successful run of a stage adaptation of Lowry’s THE GIVER. Lowry attended opening weekend, seeing two performances and both casts of performers.

“The amazing thing was the way they dealt with the color (or lack of color) issue,” Lowry wrote in her blog, reflecting on the experience. “Using special lights that sucked all the color out, the set and the performers all appeared, literally, black and white (and gray).”

Lowry also participated in an extended talkback following one of the performances which served as a wonderful experience for the entire company and audience, and a great start to the collaboration on GOSSAMER.

For more information on First Stage Children’s Theater, please visit FirstStage.org.

Photo Credits: All photos from THE GIVER. 1). Photo by Mark Frohna. Joel Boyd as Jonas. 2). Photo by Mark Frohna. Zach Both as Asher, Nurit Applebaum as Fiona, and Joel Boyd as Jonas. 3). Photo by Mark Frohna. Jane Engelking-Heer as Fiona, and Ryan Tutton as Jonas. 4). Photo by Mark Frohna. Ari Shapiro as Asher, Jane Engelking-Heer as Fiona, and Ryan Tutton as Jonas.

The Mainstreet Theatre Company
Rancho Cucamonga, California
(December 2006)

Productions Coordinator: Mireya ("Murry") Hepner

The Mainstreet Theatre Company  has sprung to life in Rancho Cucamonga, California! In it's inaugural season, we are producing three fully produced Theatre for Young Audiences productions at the beautiful  536 seat Lewis Family Playhouse at the brand new Victoria Gardens Cultural Center. The Victoria Gardens Cultural Center opened to the public in August, 2006.  It is a one-of-a-kind venue dedicated to providing families and school children with theatre experiences and educational opportunities. The Center is owned and operated by the City  of Rancho Cucamonga,  and integrates a Library, a Theatre (The Lewis Family Playhouse), and Celebration Hall, a rental and banquet facility.

The Lewis Family Playhouse is a 536 seat proscenium theatre, and will be host to a (presented) Family Series of arts programming for children and families, and a Specialty series of concerts and other acts, in addition to the offerings of the Mainstreet Theatre Company.

Presenting imaginative Theatre for Young Audiences was the City's primary goal in creating the Lewis Family Playhouse. The Mainstreet Theatre Company was created and developed by the City to provide professional theatre productions specifically designed for youth, school, and family audiences.  Productions will be primarily based on classic and contemporary children's literature, and will include entertaining performances for families as well as extended learning experiences for school group audiences. All of our productions have between 9 and 10 performances a week, consisting of weekday morning shows for school groups and weekend performances for families. The school performances in our inaugural season are already sold out, with waiting lists!

The Mainstreet Theatre Company aims to bring the highest quality theatrical performances to the beautiful Lewis Family Playhouse Stage. The Directors and Designers bringing our shows to life in our inaugural season have worked in prestigious theatres across the country -- we're thrilled to be sharing their artistry with the children and families in the Inland Empire.   

Our first show was Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation of MISS NELSON IS MISSING!, directed by Mark Rucker. It ran for 3 weeks and closed on October 8, 2006.  We're gearing up for SEUSSICAL, directed  and choreographed by Sha Newman, which opens in November, and CHARLOTTE'S WEB, directed by Adam Burke, which opens in March.   For a complete list of our creative teams and other information about this exciting new venture, visit www.lewisfamilyplayhouse.com

Photos

1) MISS NELSON IS MISSING!, which closed a few weeks ago. Ann Marie Lee is Miss Nelson, The kids are (from L to R:) - Emily Eiden, Reggie DeLeon, Alicia Gaddis, Siddeqah Shabbaz, Nick Cagle and Joe Ngo.  2) Preston Maybank is DETECTIVE MCSMOGG. Kids are : Reggie DeLeon, Michael Pappas, Alisha Gaddis, Siddeqah Shabbaz, Emily Eiden, Nick Cagle, Joe Ngo.  Set by Michael C. Smith. Costumes by Julie Keen. Lighting by Brian Gale. 3) Anne Marie Lee as VIOLA SWAMP; Kids: Siddeeqah Shabbaz, Emily Eiden, Michael Pappas,Nick Cagle, Reggie DeLeon, Joe Ngo, Alisha Gaddis. 4) Ann Marie Lee as MISS NELSON (on mars); Kids: Joe Ngo, Alisha Gaddis, Michael Pappas, Sideeqah Shabbaz, Reggie DeLeon

Journey of the Drum: A Taiko Fable
by R. A. Shiomi
March 2-22, 2007
A Classic Tale With A Taiko Twist!
When a young orphan girl falls in love with Taiko drums, nothing can stop her from learning to play. Not the tradition that says only males can play taiko, not the highest mountain in the land, and not the coldest winter on earth.Accompanied by the village heir, Sameco sets off on a quest to earn the right to play taiko. Along the way, they learn about honor, bravery, and true leadership.

This play, full of thundering drums, is SteppingStone Theatre's fourth co-production with Theater Mu, "the Midwest's foremost pan-Asian performing arts organization."

Sybil St. Claire
Orlando, Florida
(April 2007)

A career theatre artist and arts educator Sybil St. Claire works as a Lecturer in the Theatre for Young Audiences graduate program at the University of Central Florida. She is an award winning union director, and an internationally produced and published playwright, Her experience runs the gamut from theatre for the deaf to utilizing theatre as a therapeutic modality with terminally ill pediatric patients, and children in foster care. Currently, her research is focused on the psychology of creativity. Though diverse, her work shares a common thread, that of empowering others to live their best life. 

Sybil’s plays for young audiences, “Woolfie” and “Incantation” {Eldridge Publishing} recently enjoyed their 100^th production. With performances in almost every state in the union, as well as in Europe, Canada, and Central America her contributions to the field have been honored with an Outstanding Research and Creativity award from the University of Central Florida. Her monologue, “Wake me When it’s Over” was recently accepted into an as yet unnamed anthology of spiritual monologues for young actors {Meriwether Publishing} that will also feature the work of Durang, Shaw, Miller, and Sophocles.  Her work may also be found in “Audition Monologues for Student Actors: Volume II.

Sybil’s latest creation “The Invisible People,” a new musical for young audiences, composed by Amado Babadillo, explores the imaginary and spiritual life of children. We spend the evening with 12 year old Katie who is torn between growing up and giving up the things of childhood {her beloved blankie and her invisible friends}. On her revelatory journey Katie confronts and finally embraces the different aspects of herself – the noble, the frightening, and the enchanting. Having enjoyed staged reading at two equity houses the show will be ready for publication in Spring 2008. “The Invisible People” is a true story... IF you believe in magic.

For more information or to contact Sybil St. Claire, email sstclair@mail.ucf.edu.

Family Opera Initiative
New York, NY
(May 2007)

Mission Statement:
Family Opera Initiative (FOI) was created to bring to a widely diverse audience the opera experience in the form of new, original American opera-works that are accessible but challenging, made by exciting, unexpected artists, new and experienced, who speak to this audience through the artistic media of opera: music, words, theater, and visuals, with subject matter that matters; to create this work to a benchmark that will also engage the community in the process and the performance of the piece to the greatest extent possible.   

The fat lady sings? EXPLODE her and all those images and preconceptions.  These opera-works are accessible.  They embrace an indigenous vernacular energy; they burst forth in our own American-ness, and they resonate with our own language.  They enchant, challenge, and inspire multi-generational audiences – our definition of family – they make us laugh, cry, and acknowledge who we are.  These are, in fact, the same ideas that inspired the beginnings of opera back in 1590; and they are what we re-capture in these new works by American composers and writers of today.

– Grethe Barrett Holby, Executive Artistic Director

Organization Bio:
FOI was established in 1995 by director Grethe Barrett Holby as a program of American Opera Projects, the company she founded in 1988. Generously supported by the Jaffe Family Foundation and many private individuals, FOI forged an ongoing developmental residency partnership with Atlantic Center for the Arts in 2004, and is now a featured program of Ardea Arts, 501(c)3 2006. FOI has partnered with the renowned children’s theater TADA! (2001), Fort Greene Park Conservancy (2002), Orlando Opera (2005), Orlando Shakespeare Festival (2006, 2007), and Montclair State University (2006). Having fostered, developed and premiered four new operas for family audiences: Flurry Tale (1999), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2001), Fireworks (2002), and currently Animal Tales, FOI has collaborated with extraordinary artists unexpected in the field of family entertainment including Billy Aronson, Kitty Brazelton, Franco Colavecchia, Umberto Eco, Tania Leon, Richard Peaslee, George Plimpton, Clifton Taylor and Amy Trompetter. 

Current Projects:
FOI is currently developing Animal Tales, a new opera with music by Kitty Brazelton, a libretto by George Plimpton, and direction by Grethe Barrett Holby.  It is a musical fable about seven animals who come to their Vet with a desire to change their lives markedly – the goldfish wants to escape her bowl and swim the sea of Japan; the dog wants to learn to howl like a wolf; the frog is having trouble with his hopping, and so on. A community-based children’s chorus playfully comments, taunts, and sympathizes with the animals.  The children also create and learn to manipulate their own animal puppets, presenting the totality of opera as an interactive experience.  The piece crosses cultural boundaries with the combination of classically trained, R&B and jazz vocal styles, DJ techniques, and Latin percussion; integrating myriad styles of dance, costumes and puppetry into the music and production of the work.  Animal Tales exposes a younger generation who loves to sing, act, and pretend, to the fun of opera.   

Animal Tales was most recently presented as a workshop in July 2006 at Montclair State University in New Jersey and previously at Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida in January 2005. 

FOI is also in the process of developing The Three Astronauts, an opera-music-dance tone poem based on an extraordinary picture book for all ages by Umberto Eco and Eugenio Carmi. An American, a Russian, and a Chinese take off separately in their rockets.  Each wants to be the first on Mars, but they all land at the same time.  The story of how they evolve from enemies into allies is ripe for the stage; and the stark abstract beauty of Carmi’s imagery will transfix audiences.

The production will include music by Tania Leon, set and costume design by Eugenio Carmi, direction by Grethe Barrett Holby, and a libretto featuring four different languages – American, Russian, Chinese, and Martian. 

For more information about FOI, please contact Laura Wagner, Managing Producer at Lwagner@familyoperainitiative.org.

www.familyoperainitiative.org

Photos:
1.) Aus Jordan as Turtle in Animal Tales at Montclair State University
2.) Grethe Barrett Holby, Executive Artistic Director
3.) Martin Hurt as Horse in Animal Tales at Montclair State University
4.) Cast members from Animal Tales at Montclair State University
5.) The Children's Chorus creating puppets for Animal Tales at Atlantic Center for the Arts