DEAR EVAN HANSEN's Pasek and Paul Help Students See Their First Broadway Show... And You Could, Too!

This past fall, Tony/Oscar/Grammy award-winning writers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul helped forty-five students from a Bed Stuy public middle school in Brooklyn, NY learn about musical theatre through their renowned Broadway show, Dear Evan Hansen, through ASCAP's Children Will Listen program.

"My students and I cannot thank The ASCAP Foundation enough for our experience seeing Dear Evan Hansen... Not only did the students learn to have empathy for one another through this story, but they saw themselves within the characters on stage, which provided the perfect gateway theatre experience... If not for this organization, many of these children may never have set foot in a Broadway theatre," said Jennifer DeRosa, drama teacher, M.S. 57 in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, NY.

The ASCAP Foundation Children Will Listen program introduces the American Musical Theatre to public school kids, showcasing the magic of Broadway to disadvantaged youth, as well as teaching them how theatre stories can relate to them and how theatre production is a potential career path. Established in 2005, The ASCAP Foundation Children Will Listen program was created in honor of Stephen Sondheim, even naming the program after one of his Into The Woods numbers.

Here's how it works: a public school is identified each year and a current Broadway show is chosen as the program's focus. The program provides classroom materials to the teachers, and a creative team member from the show conducts a class with the students. Only a handful of days later, the children are brought to Broadway on a chartered bus with tickets in hand. As the show ends, the students take front row as the rest of the public leaves and are treated to a private Q&A with the show's stars and creative team.

"What you realise when you start to grow up is that the things that are weird about you are the things that nobody else has," Benj Pasek told the classroom of young Brooklyn students. "That is what makes you special. And that's really empowering."

As of now, the Children Will Listen program has introduced thousands of economically disadvantaged children nationwide to the magic of theatre with programs taking place in Dallas, TX, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and NYC, CA. Joining the company of Pasek and Paul are ASCAP's past award-winning guest artists, including Lin Manuel-Miranda, Stephen Schwartz, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, and Charles Strouse, among others.

"Children Will Listen has opened the doors to so many young people, and has opened their eyes to the beauty of musical theatre," adds Colleen McDonough, Executive Director of the ASCAP Foundation.

Give children the opportunity to no longer be "on the outside, always looking in". Join Pasek & Paul in their support of Children Will Listen by donating today.

For more information or to donate, visit ASCAP's Children Will Listen program here.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos