This week we had the opportunity to sit down & chat with lovely Nina Meehan from the Bay Area Children’s Theatre.

How did the Bay Area Children’s Theatre come to be?
Six years ago, Bay Area Children’s Theatre was founded as Active Arts Theatre by five professional theatre artists and educators who all shared a passion for children and the arts. We started with a $250 budget and a belief that children deserve exciting and challenging theatrical experiences and we built from there. The first show we did was in partnership with the Bay Area Discovery Museum.

What is your background?
I started working in youth theatre when I was sixteen years old through a local community theatre. Following my passion for the arts, I studied theatre with an emphasis in children’s theatre and education at Northwestern University. After college, I worked as a professional actress, youth theatre director and storyteller. Simultaneously, I was working towards my Master’s Nonprofit Administration at University of San Francisco.

How has being a mom effected your role with Bay Area Children’s Theatre?
As a mom, it is really fun to have my son in the audience for our shows. He has been attending theatre since he was six weeks old, but he is now old enough to follow the story and read the books to him before and after the shows. My son was a preemie and had challenges learning to speak, so the day that he watched “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” and said BLANKIE out loud during the show while Linus was singing about his “Blankie” was a pretty amazing moment in my life.

What benefit(s) does BACT provide to the community?
Bay Area Children’s Theatre offers an opportunity for families and friends to come together and have a great time seeing a show. Our productions are all based on great books for children, so the experience can be continued at home by reading the books together before bed time. We have lots of audience members who make it a regular custom to come to the shows with a large group of friends-all the kids sit together and the parents sit together and everyone leaves the theatre with a shared experience and a smile.

We also believe that all children should have access to our shows, so we try to reach out to children who cannot afford our ticket prices through our Theatre-for-All program which offers free or discounted tickets to under-privileged children and tours our productions to communities that do not have access to the arts.

What can parents expect from BACT?
Parents can expect an experience that is designed with children in mind, but that adults will enjoy as well. We want the three year old, eight year old, mom, and grandpa to all enjoy themselves. We love to tell a great story and we work to bring to life the familiar characters from well-loved books with authenticity and originality. Our adult, professional actors are all trained to use audience interaction to help engage the children in the audience. And at the end of the show, the audience has an opportunity to meet the actors.

What will a child gain from attending one of your summer camps?
Our summer camps are designed to engage the creativity and imagination of children while building theatre skills in acting, singing, dancing, and improvisation. The emphasis in all of our classes is in working as a team, building self-confidence, and having fun!!

What are some of the most memorable experiences you’ve had since you started BACT?
In six years we have performed for 18,000 audience members in the Bay Area and 100,000 across the country through our national tour. While that is a huge number of people, a few moments stick out in my memory:

Last summer, we performed “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie” at Children’s Fairyland. A little girl was in the audience who was about five years old. She was sitting with her grandma, her dad, and her little sister who was two years old. She had brought her copy of the book with her to the show and throughout the performance followed the story page by page, each time showing her little sister and her dad every time an image from the book matched the image on the stage.

After we did our performance of Little Women, we got an email from a mom who had taken her nine year old daughter to the show. Apparently, the large size of the book had scared away her daughter from reading it before, but after seeing the show, she picked up the book and started reading it chapter by chapter.

We were doing school performances of Strega Nona and before the show, I asked the audience how many of the children had ever seen live theatre. Only about ten hands went up through the whole school. After the show, I asked the same question and every single child was able to raise their hand.

Where do you hope to be in 5 years?
In five years, we hope to expand our pre-k season to include more than just one show per year. We also hope to expand our season to include a second-stage series which focuses on multi-cultural shows and less-known titles. We hope to continue our national tour and our main stage season. We also want to expand our education programs to include at least three new communities.

How can the community get involved?
We love volunteers!! We can always use volunteer parent/child usher teams which is a great way to see one of ours shows for free.

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced?
As a small company, it is always challenging to reach both our artistic and financial goals. We work hard to bring the best product possible to our audience, but our ticket sales alone do not cover the costs of the productions, so fundraising and raising revenue is a constant challenge. On a personal note, I am a mom of a two year old little boy who I totally adore spending time with. Like most working moms I struggle with work/life balance. I want to be the best mom I can and build a business at the same time.

How can a parent with a young child (under 3) get involved (performances?)?
Our upcoming production of “The Little Engine that Could, the Musical” opens July 10th at Children’s Fairyland. The show is specifically designed for audiences ages one to six. The show uses acrobatics, music, dance, and audience interaction to tell the beloved story where the little engine gets over the hill with the chant, “I think I can.” Tickets are $14 for children and adults and include all day admission to Children’s Fairyland. You can purchase tickets at www.bactheatre.org.

What is your next performance that parents should bring their children to?
Little Engine that Could, the Musical

After meeting with Nina, Playplanit is buying our tickets today. Hope to see you there!