Broadway's Andrea Dotto and Brendan Malafronte Develop Children's Reading Show With The Reading League

Andrea Dotto (Bandstand) and Brendan Malafronte have developed a new children's reading show with national nonprofit, The Reading League. After their theater jobs were cancelled due to the industry shutdown, husband and wife team Dotto & Malafronte moved upstate to quarantine with family. From there, a labor of love was formed. The two started a read aloud series on Dotto's Instagram called Dusty & Dott. Born out of a need for connection, their reading corner quickly became a lifeline for the couple's creativity.

Dusty & Dott have since teamed up with The Reading League to build a television series to combat the COVID slide and the digital divide effecting many young readers. The Reading League's Reading Buddies is a fun, foundational reading television series that features important underlying components of skillful word reading such as phonological awareness, letter names/sounds, and blending sounds to decode words accurately.

Reading Buddies incorporates elements from evidence-aligned curricula designed for students in grade levels Pre-K - grade 3, but the young-at-heart will also find it engaging and endearing! There is space given to social-emotional growth along with a dance portion physicalizing the importance of a strong vocabulary! The esthetic of the show pays homage to the classic variety show, with a "Shari Lewis" sensibility.

With the help of The Reading League, Dotto & Malafronte have produced, written, directed, performed, and edited 20 episodes coming to you on September 13th! You can watch Reading Buddies on YouTube and on PBS affiliate WCNY.

Be sure to follow @readingbuddiestrl and @dusty_and_dott on Iinstagram and Facebook.
Learn more about The Reading League's Reading Buddies at www.thereadingleague.org/Reading-Buddies.

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