SHAKESPEARE YOUNG@PART®: SOME COMEDIES introduces the audience to six of Shakespeare’s comedies. The shortened comedies that are included are TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, AS YOU LIKE IT, TWELFTH NIGHT, and THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
Category: Theatre for Young Audiences
Ghost
Running is all that Castle Cranshaw, a.k.a. “Ghost”, has ever known, but he runs for all the wrong reasons—until he meets Coach, who sees something in him: raw talent. The story follows Castle as he tries to stay on track, literally and figuratively, harnessing his aptitude for speed on an elite local track team while battling the difficult realities of his past and present. Based on the award winning bestseller by Jason Reynolds, Ghost also highlights the importance of allyship. As his teammates become friends and Coach stands in as a father figure, Castle finds a place where he belongs.
Jacked!
Inspired by Jack and the Beanstalk and designed and developed for children, Jacked! fuses storytelling and poetry with hip-hop and break-beat music to encourage a dialogue about substance abuse and the overwhelming effects the opioid epidemic is having in our communities.
Jabari Dreams of Freedom
10 year old Jabari loves to paint. With his Forever President Barack Obama as a guide, Jabari escapes the violent reality of an encounter with the police through his colorful paintings where he meets children from the past who teach him how to be fearless. He then meets his hero, Barack Obama, as a 6 year old boy on the eve of the assassination of MLK, Jr. Will Jabari be able to instill in young Barack the lessons he’s learned and therefore ensure that Barack will have the necessary tools to become president? Will he learn to take these lessons back into his own life and heal his community? JABARI DREAMS OF FREEDOM is a 45 minute dream, a piece for ages 8 and up, using rap, freedom songs, hip hop dance, history, and humor to tell the story of a young Black boy from the South Side of Chicago who is afraid to leave the house, but learns to dream of freedom.
Cinderella: The Real Story
This new take on an old classic tells the forgotten stories hidden in the fairy tale we all know so well. Hilarious, imaginative, and powerful, this play is specifically designed to be performed by young performers and may be adapted to a virtual or in-person performance venue.
The Brightest Thing
An American Fable that’s tinged with sadness about a girl’s imaginary journey in a hot air balloon to rescue her mother.
Bina’s Six Apples
Bina’s family grows the finest apples in all of Korea. But when war forces her to flee her home, Bina is alone in the world with just six precious apples to her name. Can these meager possessions help her find her family? Join Bina on her spirited journey that ranges from the heartbreaking to the humorous. Encountering new challenges at every turn, Bina is forced to rely upon her apples and their important legacy as she begins to discover the power of her own resilience. Often mesmerizing, always heartwarming, Bina will discover that she’s not the only one on a difficult quest for a place to call home.
Carmela Full of Wishes
It’s Carmela’s birthday, and she’s finally old enough to accompany her big brother on his errands. On their way to the laundromat, past fields of what her Mamí calls “flores de cempazuchitl”, Carmela finds a puffy white dandelion to blow, but her brother asks “Did you even make a wish?”
The Newbery award-winning team behind Last Stop on Market Street portrays Carmela’s migrant community as a vibrant place of possibility. Full of touching and funny fantasies, Carmela must decide what her deepest wish is and she must do it before her birthday is over.
Nate the Great
NATE THE GREAT is a funny, sweet, rollicking good time that celebrates art, friendship, creative thinking, and of course, pancakes.
Nate the Great, the world’s greatest boy detective awakes, hoping that this day will bring a new case. He gets a call from his good friend Annie alerting him that her new painting of her dog Fang is missing! He rushes over to her house to investigate. There he searches for clues and interviews her brother Harry who loves red paint and monsters. He also observes (and possibly tangoes) with Fang.
Having struck out at Annie’s house, Nate deduces that the painting must have been taken by Annie’s cat loving friend Rosamond; as she was the only other person with access to Annie’s masterpiece.
Upon arriving at Rosamond’s house, Nate learns that she has a case to solve as well. One of her four cats, Super Hex, is missing! Nate ultimately realizes that Rosamond could not have stolen the painting. For the first time in his career, he is…stumped. And worse yet, Mom is all out of pancakes.
To solve this case he is going to need to find some pancakes, learn to think new ways, and rely on the help of his friends. By the end he has opened up his mind to new possibilities, found Annie’s painting, found Rosamond’s cat, and maybe even solved the mystery of why music in a minor key makes us sad.
Claus
How the boy became a man. How the man became a legend. Claus tells the incredible story of a human child brought up by Immortals in a magical forest. But when Claus discovers there’s a whole world outside of the forest, inhabited by humans like him, his life takes a different path. Claus leaves the magical forest behind to be with his own kind and soon discovers a gift for toy-making. Children instantly love him, but the evil Awgwas, who revel in making children naughty, wage war on Claus who calls on his immortal friends for help. But even free from the Awgwas, Claus faces a bigger battle – he’s getting older and can’t continue to deliver presents to children for ever, or can he…?
Based on the book The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum (writer of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz), CLAUS is a musical for the entire family.