Playwright, Director Share Insights As BACT Prepares West Coast Premiere Of LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET

"A play evolves," says Gloria Bond Clunie, whose lively and touching stage adaptation of "Last Stop on Market Street," the Newbery Medal and Caldecott Honor book written by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christian Robinson, will have its West Coast premiere October 5, presented by Bay Area Children's Theatre (BACT).

Clunie, who originally created "Last Stop on Market Street" for The Children's Theatre of Charlotte, has been in the Bay Area exchanging insights about the script with Director Michael (Mojo) Mohammed as he and the BACT cast prepare to tell the story of young CJ's adventures riding across town on the Dragon Bus with his loving Nana.

"Last Stop on Market Street is a gorgeous book that gives voice to experiences that are rarely represented in children's literature," said BACT Executive Artistic Director Nina Meehan. "CJ's story about finding the beauty in the world around him and learning from the rich variety of the people he meets on his trip to the soup kitchen where his grandmother volunteers is very important, not just for young audiences but for everyone interested in fostering kindness, empathy and optimism in the world today. We are honored that Gloria Bond Clunie has joined us during our rehearsals to share her insights about her play. Michael Mohammed, a gifted director, singer and choreographer, is helping us bring the distinctive rhythms of Gloria's script to the stage."

"It's phenomenal to have a rolling premiere," Clunie said. "There are so many things you can see and hear once you have an audience. At BACT, we have another group of phenomenal actors and another brilliant director who is very different from the first director and sees the play in a different way. Mojo is a dancer, a choreographer. He directs body-wise. So, I'm seeing the script through his eyes now. I can watch him direct a moment that clicks, and I know the story is going to move forward. But if Mojo hits a hitch, it can trigger me to change something. It's so important to see the script and the stage directions through another set of eyes and to learn how someone else will interpret what's on the page. The roadmap from the script has to be clear so the children can come away with the gift of the book brought to life."

"Knowing what Gloria intended when she wrote a line adds a new layer of meaning to our interpretation," said Mohammed. "It's been nice to have her in the room to bounce ideas back and forth. I didn't know the book. As a director, my framework is the script. When I read the play, it felt very much in the lineage of the Black Arts Movement of the '60s and '70s, which sought to democratize theatre and have different voices being heard and break away from traditional Western style of theatre. That's how I wanted to approach the story, to honor that lineage. And, the way the script is written, there's a lot of flexibility for creation. My background is in devised theater work-ensemble-created work-and theatre for young audiences, and it seemed like a good opportunity to put those skills together - and have the audience actively contribute to the world of the show as well, which we're doing, for example, by having them help create the soundscape."

Only a very limited number of tickets remain available for this production, and a very limited number of weekday matinees are still open for school groups. Demand has been so high that BACT is looking into the possibility of bringing the show back later in the season.

Box office: www.bactheatre.org or call (510) 296-4433

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