New York City Children's Theater Reveals its 28th Season

New York City Children’s Theater will launch its 2024-2025 season, kicking off with CINCO/FIVE, a bilingual sensory adventure designed to engage young audiences in both Spanish and English. This dynamic show will tour New York City's boroughs at iconic venues such as the Queens Museum, New York Botanical Garden, and the Brooklyn Public Library. Following this borough-wide tour, NYCCT will present the world premiere of THE POCKET PARK KIDS, an uplifting original play about sustainability. Co-written and directed by Tony Award-nominated actor Anika Larsen and Orlando Bishop, this play features music about community, sustainability, and working together to make a difference. The show begins on February 22, 2025 at the Theatre Row. 

"New York City Children’s Theater has always been committed to creating sustainable and accessible theatre, and this season marks an important moment for us as we truly live that mission," said Barbara Zinn Krieger, Founder and Artistic Director of NYCCT. "By taking our bilingual productions into the boroughs and collaborating on a world premiere with Broadway artists, we are making our 28th season the most impactful yet. We are expanding our outreach to new communities and inspiring the next generation to engage with theatre in meaningful ways.” 

Founded in 1996, New York City Children’s Theater has been creating original and socially conscious theater for 28 years. Through professional productions and arts-in-education programs, NYCCT has reached over 420,000 children and adults across the five boroughs and surrounding communities. We believe in the transformative power of the arts to spark creativity and foster social and emotional growth in young people. 

ABOUT THE PRODUCTIONS 

  

CINCO/FIVE, on tour from October to November 2024, invites young audiences on a bilingual adventure through New York City with Piper the Puppet! This captivating production, created by Sara Morgulis and Brooke Boertzel, combines live music, puppetry, interactive videos, and sensory objects to explore the five senses while celebrating the city's cultural diversity. Featuring music by Alec Gross and a bilingual adaptation by Andrea Palma and Ana Cantorán Viramontes, with a new song by Laura Galindo, CINCO/FIVE will be performed in both Spanish and English. Catch the show at iconic venues, including the Queens Museum, New York Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Public Library, Bronx Music Hall, and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. 

The world premiere of THE POCKET PARK KIDS will run from February 22 to March 16, 2025 at Theatre Row on 42nd Street. Created by Tony Award-nominated actor and climate advocate Anika Larsen, Andrea Varga, and Barbara Zinn Krieger, and written by Anika Larsen and award-winning writer Orlando Bishop, this inspiring play with music follows a group of neighborhood kids as they unite to save a neglected city park. Featuring a talking parakeet and a powerful message about sustainability, THE POCKET PARK KIDS shows us how "small people can get big things done." Inspired by the United Nations Global Goals for Sustainability, the show encourages children and families to explore themes of environmental stewardship, equality, and community action. As writer and director Anika Larsen shares, “Over the past couple of years, I’ve become a passionate advocate for sustainable practices in theater and beyond. The UN Global Goals for Sustainability provide an elegant framework for understanding the world’s problems and how all of us have the power to help solve them, so I was excited to incorporate them into a play for New York City Children’s Theater. It’s been thrilling to see the talented creative team of THE POCKET PARK KIDS embrace the challenge of making this production sustainably joyful with every step and choice we make.”  

The CINCO/FIVE Five-Borough Tour will run from October 20, 2024, to November 23, 2024. For performance information and to sign up for exclusive early access to tickets for THE POCKET PARK KIDS, visit www.nycchildrenstheater.org.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAMS

ANIKA LARSEN is an actor, singer, director, writer, teacher and climate advocate who has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in national tours and regionally.  She was nominated for a Tony Award for her role as Cynthia Weil in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and she also appeared on Broadway in Almost Famous, Avenue Q, Xanadu, All Shook Up and Rent.  Anika wrote and performed in a musical about her childhood growing up in Cambridge, MA with nine brothers and sisters from different races and countries; she released an album of lullabies for all ages called Sing You to Sleep; and she gigs with her trumpet-playing husband in the Larsen Maxwell Quintet.

Anika is on the board of the Broadway Green Alliance and she created and hosted “The Broadway Vlog to Save the Planet” for the Broadway Podcast Network, which showcases the theater community’s efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (aka the Global Goals).  She is co-writing and directing a play for NYC Children’s Theater called The Pocket Park Kids that brings the Global Goals to life, and she will direct it at Theatre Row in February of next year.  Anika’s favorite refrain:  If theater can’t save the world, what can?  www.anikalarsen.biz

ORLANDO BISHOP is a multi-talented storyteller and performance coach with a rich background in theater, television, and film. A Yale graduate and former member of the renowned Shades a cappella group, Orlando honed his craft as a performer and storyteller. He is the co-playwright of “The Pocket Park Kids,” an Off-Broadway production created with long-time collaborator Anika Larsen. Orlando’s diverse talents span stand-up comedy, television writing, and film directing, including his work on the film “Dinner for Two,” which he wrote and directed for TV One. As the founder of Align Performance LLC, Orlando empowers individuals and organizations to achieve their highest potential through alignment of values and actions. His approach integrates his wide-ranging experience in entertainment and education, making his coaching style unique and impactful.

Orlando’s family is his cornerstone. His wife, Daphne Pierre-Bishop, is a managing partner at VanderMidden, and their twins, Maya and Alex, are carving their own paths, continuously filling him with pride.

  

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