Nat'l Children's Theatre Festival At Actors' Playhouse

Actors' Playhouse acclaimed Musical Theatre for Young Audiences proudly announces its 13th Annual National Children's Theatre Festival featured musical PAINT! Marc Chagall's Colorful Musical Adventure that will be presented at the Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables April 23-May 31, 2008.
 
With book and lyrics by Robin Seidman, a gifted teacher and playwright from Georgia, and music by Atlanta composer and puppeteer Spencer G. Stephens, children will learn about Marc Chagall's background and how he became an internationally important artist.
 
PAINT! Marc Chagall's Colorful Musical Adventure is about young Marc Chagall's passion and persistence to follow his dream to become an artist. In the play Marc wants to be a painter more than anything, yet his parents strongly forbid it because of his religious cultural heritage. Respectful of his parent's wishes, the musical relates how Marc strived to imagine a way to combine his love of art with the unique style of painting for which he is known worldwide today.
 
The tale embodies the larger-than-life mystical style of Marc Chagall's work and his journey in overcoming obstacles to pursue his love of painting. The musical will enchant young audiences with singing and dancing animal characters as the artist magically transforms objects from his vivid imagination into colorful art forms with the wave of a paintbrush.
 
An acclaimed artist and impressionist, Marc Chagall was born in a poor town in Russia in 1887. The first of nine children to a poor but devoutly religious Jewish family, Chagall displayed his artistic promise early with strong disapproval, particularly from his father. With his religious background forbidding the use of human faces on bodies, Marc developed a style of painting that fused together bright colors, animals and religious symbols in his art creating a fantastic dreamlike world. His canvases are displayed in major galleries all over the world including the Marc Chagall Gallery in Nice, France. Chagall's magnificent art is also featured in the famed stained glass dome in the Paris Opera House, the windows in the Hadassah Hospital in Israel, and in the United Nations Building.
 
The 13th National Children's Theatre Festival will be held April 26 & 27, 2008 with all day fun for kids and families including activities and performances of PAINT! and other cultural groups.  During the weekend the theatre is alive with multiple hands-on activities to educate children in stage design and building, costume and make-up, story telling, puppetry, juggling, mask and instrument making, and free acting classes. The authors of PAINT! will be on hand to greet the audiences and discuss writing a musical play from a concept to its production on stage.
 
Initiated in 1994, Actors' Playhouse sponsors a National Call to Competition for new children's musical works, which is judged by leading industry professionals and presented during the Festival. This annual Festival provides the excitement of a new musical for children to our South Florida community develops an understanding of theatre arts for young audiences, and fosters artistic opportunity to playwrights/composers by showcasing their play. PAINT! will be a cultural learning experience for students in the performing and visual arts with its inspirational story of how one man followed his dreams in becoming a world-class artist. Detailed study guides of PAINT! are provided by Actors' Playhouse and are available online at www.actorsplayhouse.org .
 
PAINT! Marc Chagall's Colorful Musical Adventure will play at the Miracle Theatre beginning April 23 – May 31, 2008. Performances are Saturdays at 2pm, except for the Festival Family Weekend that will have a separate schedule to be announced March 2008. Ticket prices are $15/person with special group rates for groups of 15 people or more. Birthday party packages are available with group rates for show only or show and reception. Season Flex/Anytime passes are available for $75/person for cost savings and reserved VIP seating in every show. Contact the box office at 305.444.9293 or order online at www.actorsplayhouse.org . Weekday matinees are available for pre-arranged groups with advance bookings through their educational department at $6.50 per student. Following each weekday production the director and the cast hold a Q&A with the audience to discuss the magic on stage.
 
Voted "Best of the Best" Kids Theatre by South Florida Parenting Magazine, over 50,000 children attend Children's Theatre performances each year. The 2007-2008 season also includes THE FANTASTIC RETURN OF THE FABULOUS FABLE FACTORY (October 4 – 27, 2007), MADELINE'S CHRISTMAS (November 28 - December 29, 2007), THE WIZARD OF OZ (January 30 - March 29, 2008), and PAINT! Marc Chagall's Colorful Musical Adventure (April 23 - May 31, 2008), and FREE TO BE… YOU AND ME (June 26-August 2, 2008).