South Coast Repertory Partners With The Story Pirates on SLEEP SQUAD, An Immersive Bedtime Adventure for Kids

South Coast Repertory has partnered with The Story Pirates and Tony Award-winning producer Eva Price for Sleep Squad-a family-friendly, interactive, virtual theatre experience that turns your home into a rocket ship to launch kids into their dreams. Starring Tony Award-nominee Lilli Cooper (SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical, Tootsie) and featuring brand new, unique, kid-driven comedy and music that you can't see or hear anywhere else, this world premiere, on-demand production creates a new kind of bedtime ritual for kids age 4-12. Sleep Squad is available to stream on-demand from Feb. 1-14. Streaming Family Pass tickets are available to pre-order now through SCR's website: https://bit.ly/3nR2iBg. A portion of the ticket price directly benefits SCR.

In Sleep Squad, Lilli Cooper portrays the Dream Queen, who guides adventurers through three different, enchanting virtual experiences, adapted from stories written by real kids. These include a visit to a desert island (Stuck Island), a dinosaur's birthday party (Spinosaurus' Birthday) and an intergalactic nightclub (30 Moons) and allow kids to take ownership of imagination-powered storytelling. Sleep Squad concludes with soothing music that will help lull adventurers to sleep.

"We're excited to partner with The Story Pirates and Eva Price on this innovative, theatrical adventure for kids," said Artistic Director David Ivers. "Sleep Squad offers kids an immersive storytelling experience that engages their imaginations, helps them settle down to sleep and gives them the tools to record their dreams. As a parent, I can identify with how challenging bedtime can be. Sleep Squad, and its nightly routine, will have kids looking forward to going to sleep."

Parents and reviewers have been raving about Sleep Squad since its launch in late November. Review Wire recommended it as a "'stellar' new bedtime ritual for the whole fam!" and Motherhood Later remarked, "The best part was watching the smile on my son's face as he listened to the stories, paused to write in his sleep journal, and watched the stars dancing on the walls of his room." And The New York Times theatre critic Alexis Soloski remarked that her kids enjoyed creating their own stories behind their sleep masks. She added, "This is the first time in 20 years of theater criticism that I can unashamedly make this claim: The show put me to sleep."

The Story Pirates, one of the Sleep Squad producers, "believe that kids are creative geniuses. All of them." Winner of the 2020 iHeartRadio award and the 2020 Webby Award for Best Kids and Family Podcast, Story Pirates Podcast is one of the top three kids and family podcasts in the world. Downloaded more than 25 million times, and featuring songs and sketches based on stories written by kids, their special guests include top talent like Billy Eichner, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dax Shepard, Amber Ruffin, Bowen Yang, Claire Danes, John Oliver and Lake Bell. The Pirates have released three critically acclaimed middle-grade books with Penguin Random House and three award-winning albums, all based on ideas from kids around the world.

Sleep Squad is produced by The Story Pirates and Tony Award-winning producer Eva Price (Oklahoma!, Jagged Little Pill). It is created and directed by Olivier Award-nominated Jennifer Weber (& Juliet) and Drama Desk nominee Lee Overtree (Artistic Director, The Story Pirates). See below for full Sleep Squad creative team bios.

Families may order Sleep Squad two ways and watch as many times during the Feb. 1-14 steaming window:

• Video Only: $35
• Video + a Dreamtime Kit: $50. The kit is shipped directly to purchasers and includes a dream journal, a sleep mask, stickers and a star globe nightlight. Recommendation: order early to allow time for shipping the kit.

Complete information is available online: https://bit.ly/3nR2iBg

This partnership offering is part of SCR commUNITY, the theatre's new digital storytelling platform.

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