Birmingham Children’s Theatre

Birmingham Children’s Theatre: On-Tour

A behind the scenes look at Birmingham Children’s Theatre On-Tour! For more information on how to bring Birmingham Children’s Theatre to your community, please contact Alex McConnell, Director of Touring, at tour@bct123.org.

One of the nation’s oldest and largest professional theatre companies for young audiences, Birmingham Children’s Theatre (BCT) produces high-quality, professional theatrical entertainment and curriculum-relevant arts education experiences for children and families. BCT is the second largest employer of professional theatre artists in Alabama, and is Alabama’s only professional touring theatre company. As the resident professional theatre company of the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC) in downtown Birmingham, BCT operates the 150-seat Dominick Studio Theatre, the intimate 250-seat Wee Folks Theatre for students ages 3-6 and the larger 996-seat Mainstage Theatre for students ages 6-up.

During the 2012-2013 season, BCT will celebrate its 65th anniversary with 11 professionally produced shows, 4 of which will tour to arts centers, schools and communities as part of the BCT On Tour educational outreach program. In-house productions at the BJCC annually play to over 90,000 school students in grades K-12, while BCT On Tour reaches over 80,000 additional students each year in approximately 100 cities across Alabama and the Southeast. BCT’s Academy of Performing Arts Classes provide one-on-one instruction for students ages 3-18 in theatre training and fundamental childhood growth skills.  Established in 1947, BCT has touched the lives of over twelve million students throughout its six-decade history. BCT’s ongoing New Voices Project has commissioned over 50 original scripts, stories, musicals and adaptations for young audiences since 1982 alone, and maintains a commitment to discovering new voices among playwrights, and the presentation and experimentation in dramatic literature for youth. In 2011-2012, BCT offered more than 250 in-house performances and 200 tour performances that reached over 570 K-12 schools and served over 170,000 youth and families.  In June 2012, BCT hired a new Executive Director, Jack R. Lemmon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Children%27s_Theatre