Bay Area Kids Find Joy, Community in Junior Musicals

It’s not unusual to hear about the revival of a musical, but these days it feels like there's a revival of the entire musical genre. From Hamilton on Broadway to La La Land on the big screen, musical theater is a pop culture phenomenon.

And it is a phenomenon that appeals to all ages -- including 53 kids all part of the Bay Area Children’s Theater (BACT) who danced and sang their way around an Oakland auditorium this week.

The kids -- ranging in age from 9 to 17 years old -- were rehearsing a calypso number from a new musical based on the "Magic Tree House" book series that they'll debut this weekend at the Junior Theater Festival West in Sacramento.

So here they all were on a Saturday afternoon, eagerly practicing their songs and dances for hours on end.

Some waved ribbons high in the air, mimicking a foamy sea. Others twirled orange umbrellas in the shape of a giant sun while belting out their harmonies. Then there was Sophia Gilbert, playing Annie, one of the "Magic Tree House" explorers.

“When you’re 11 and you’re doing musical theater,” Gilbert told me after rehearsal, “grownups maybe sometimes think that when you're younger you don’t care as much but I think that no matter what age you are you can still put your heart into it.”

There is a lot of heart to go around here, and hard work. It's a rare chance for the students to rehearse with the founder of the Junior Theater Festival, Tim McDonald.

McDonald alternately watched quietly and handed out instructions.

But he also listened to input from the performers and encouraged their ideas about staging. One lead asks if she can cross the stage at various points in her song to different characters.

“Is that what your body is telling you to do?” asked McDonald. “Then let’s try it.”

It’s no surprise that McDonald has spent most of his career trying to get students more involved in musicals.

“Twenty years ago the audiences for musical theater were literally dying out, they were aging out," says McDonald, "and young people weren’t picking up that torch."

Then, McDonald says, the composer Steven Sondheim and playwright/screenwriter Arthur Laurents -- known together for their collaboration on West Side Story -- came along. They reasoned that because of their complexity, most students only got first-hand experience with musical theater productions starting in high school.

Sondheim’s idea? To create one-hour versions of shows tailored to elementary and middle school kids. They would keep only essential plot lines and move the music into keys that are accessible for young voices.

Sondheim and Laurents found an eager partner in Fred Gershon, CEO of Musical Theater International, which licenses musicals.

Tim McDonald was charged with carrying out the initial idea. Now McDonald estimates his company iTheatrics has an audience of about 36 million people a year -- compared to 12 million who go to a traditional show in New York.

“So three times as many people... who see a Broadway show get their musical theater fix by watching their kids perform one of these adaptations,” says McDonald.

But McDonald and most of the people in this Oakland auditorium today would likely highlight even more the benefit to the young people.

One after another the performers detailed the joy, and their growth from musical theater.

Like Jack Stickler. He’s 14 years old and got to play the lead in the show Honk Jr. last year. He said he couldn’t stop singing the songs during the run, they resonated so much.

“When I went on stage and performed as the Ugly Duckling I had that feeling that I wasn’t Jack Stickler anymore I was this character and it was the best feeling ever,” said Stickler. “It changed my world because everyone was just so supportive and it was that environment where I felt this big feeling of belonging.”

14 year old Lauren Staelin has been doing musical theater for 7 years. She said people are often surprised when they see her on stage. She said she is generally reserved but in shows, she often plays hammy, gregarious characters.

“The best thing about musical theater is you get to escape,” said Staelin. “I love doing theater because I really get to express myself and I also get to experiment with what I’m comfortable with.”

Her castmate Sumuk Cadpakar agreed that he likes exploring different characters.

But Cadpakar said drama has also helped as he dealt with being bullied at school.

“One time I played a bully in a school show,” said Cadpakar. “In that musical I loved the way the character I was playing bullied another character but that character stood up for himself and that really taught me how someone else would feel.”

Last year Cadpakar was part of the group from the Bay Area Children’s Theater that went to the national Junior Theater Festival on the East Coast. He said s he wouldn't easily forget the euphoric feeling of going up on stage there to accept an award with his cast.

“It was just like 5,000 people screaming at you and showing support, how much they care,” said Cadpakar.

For the kids, the awards may be a memorable part of the Junior Theater Festivals. But organizer Tim McDonald said the friendly competition and festival has a larger point as well.

He remembers growing up outside of Redding, and his high school’s women’s basketball team winning a state title. It was clear from the moment they returned to town, he recalled, that because of that glory, the program was never going to get cut.

McDonald reasoned there should be the same opportunity for theater programs to bring attention to their schools and communities.

“If we can identify and recognize excellent musical theater programs in schools and afterschool programs, we hope, in fact we know we are giving those programs a chance to be recession proof and cut proof,” said McDonald.

Fifteen hundred people are expected to participate and compete for that attention at the Junior Theater Festival West this weekend in Sacramento.