Bay Area Children's Theatre to Offer Musical Theatre Workshops in Seoul

Cast members from the new musical version of James and the Giant Peach, which the Bay Area Children's Theatre (BACT) presents August 1 and 2 at the Shanghai Children's Art Theatre (SHCAT), will fly to Seoul and Shanghai early to offer workshops in American-style musical theatre to youngsters in those cities.

All of the participating performers are also teaching artists who have taught theatre arts in BACT's education program and elsewhere.

SHCAT invited BACT to perform the musical version of Roald Dahl's classic tale, with music and lyrics by Tony Award-nominated composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and script by children's playwright-educator Timothy Allen McDonald, as part of an international cross-cultural exchange.

Cast members Derek Travis Collard, who plays the role of Green Grasshopper, G. Betsy Picart (Ladybug), and Maurice André San-Chez (Earthworm) will lead the five-day Shanghai workshop, which will help launch a new education program for SHCAT. The workshop will take place July 23-27.

In the case of the workshop in Seoul, South Korea, the Miracle Works Musical Studio learned that BACT would be performing in China and asked the company to come to Seoul "en route" to help its advanced students understand and experience the classic "triple-threat" skills of musical theatre-singing, dancing, and acting. Miracle Works brings its advanced students to Atlanta, Georgia, to participate in the annual Junior Theatre Festival, where musical theatre professionals critique the performance of student teams.

Rachel Seele, who plays Spider in James and the Giant Peach, Caroline Schneider (Aunt Sponge) and senior BACT teacher and performer Amber Dyson will lead the five-day Seoul workshop, July 20-25.

"We are delighted to be 'going international' with our teaching program as well as with our main stage production of James and the Giant Peach," said BACT's Education Program Director Rebecca Posamentier. "These workshops give us the opportunity to help students understand American-style musical theatre as a technique for telling stories, learn how to utilize the physical body to create characters, explore how to control the voice and project for speech and singing on stage, expand their theatrical vocabulary, and engage their imagination for creative storytelling. These are all experiences we seek to give our students here at home, but it's a special privilege-and very exciting-to be asked to share them with young performers abroad."