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Contra Costa Marketplace - May 2016

stories—either visually, through movement, or with words. BACT has also commissioned a playwright who will take those stories and hence construct a show to be performed for the children next year. BACT may be one of the busiest theater companies around. Their main stage plays generally tour between Berkeley, San Ramon and Pleasanton (they’ve also done national tours). In addition to El Cerrito, BACT provides musical theatre classes in the cities of Orinda and Lafayette, their home base in Oakland, and more. They’ve also recently expanded to San Francisco. This year, for the first time ever, they’re producing a show designed specifically for children as young as 6 months to 4 years old—a very immersive, highly interactive theatrical experience called Blue Kaboom. And they’re already planning their 14th season which begins the weekend after their 13th season ends. Their success has been based greatly in part to communities requesting their services. “Wherever the school has a need, if they want to have an after-school musical theater program—we can help provide that for them,” Meehan says. So don’t hesitate to ask them to become even busier. To audition, sign your child up for classes, volunteer, or request a musical theater program in your neck of the woods, contact Bay Area Children’s Theatre at (510) 296-4433 or visit www.bactheatre.org. And don’t forget, theater isn’t just for kids, Meehan reminds us. “People need the arts as part of their life from the diaper to adulthood!”


Contra Costa Marketplace - May 2016
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