SMALL STEPS to Premiere at Oregon Children's Theatre; Opens 4/24

Louis Sachar, Newbery Award winning author of Holes, has adapted his children's novel, Small Steps into a musical that will premiere at the Orgeon Children's Theatre in April. SMALL STEPS will begin performances April 24th and run through May 16th.

Two years after being released from Camp Green Lake Juvenile Correctional Facility, Armpit is back in Austin, Texas, working at a landscaping company and trying to change his life, taking small steps. He sets five goals for himself, determined to keep moving forward. 1. Graduate from high school. 2. Get a job. 3. Save some money. 4. Avoid situations that might get violent. 5. Lose his nickname Armpit.

Things are going smoothly until X-Ray, a friend from Camp Green Lake, turns up unexpectedly with a get-rich-quick scheme. The plan sounds simple. Kaira DeLeon, the famous teen pop star, is playing a concert in Austin. All X-Ray and Armpit have to do is buy tickets when they go on sale, mark up the price, and sell them to concertgoers. Reluctantly, Armpit agrees to the scheme, but things don't go nearly as smoothly as X-Ray promises they will. Armpit ends up taking Ginny, his ten-year old neighbor, to the concert, and a series of unexpected events leads to Armpit nearly getting arrested, and a chance encounter with Kaira herself.

Suddenly, Armpit's life is spinning out of control and he finds himself trying to keep himself and X-Ray out of jail, avoid angry ticket scalpers, and even on a plane to San Francisco. Louis Sachar's sequel to Holes follows Armpit as he maneuvers through the unexpected, the dangerous, and even the romantic-all the while trying to keep his goals in sight, take small steps, and keep moving forward.

The cast features Johnny Crawford as Armpit, Ellora Vilkin as Kaira DeLeon, Ty Jones as X-Ray, Annabel Cantor as Ginny, Jane Fellows as Cherry Lane, Heidi Wilcox as Kaira's Mother, Ileana Herrin as Aileen/Debbie Newberg/Woman, John Killeen as Jack/Fred, Paul Glazier El Genius, Eleanor Bray as Tatiana/Girl/Paramedic/Woman in Line, and Hayden Wilcox as Security Guard/Paramedic/Bully.

The design team for the musical include scenic designer Chris Rousseau, costume designer Margaret Chapman, lighting designer Mark LaPierre, and sound designer John Bredenzen.

Founded in 1989, Oregon Children's Theatre is Oregon's largest non-profit professional children's theater company and a resident company of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. Performances are held weekdays for school audiences and on weekends for family audiences. OCT serves more than 111,000 children of all ages each year. OCT offers numerous school services including in-school workshops and an extensive outreach program. OCT's year round Acting Academy offers theater classes for children ages 4-17.

Funding for the 2009-2010 season will be provided in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council, Oregon Arts Commission, Work for Art, Meyer Memorial Trust, James F. & Marion L.
Miller Foundation, and the Shubert Foundation.

For more information, visit www.octc.org.

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