Bad Kitty on Stage Comes to San Ramon, Saturday, February 27

Get ready for hilarious high jinks when Bad Kitty on Stage opens Saturday, February 27, at 11 a.m., at the Dougherty Performing Arts Center, 10550 Albion Road, San Ramon 94582.

Bad Kitty on Stage—a brand new Bay Area Children’s Theatre (BACT) production based on Author-Illustrator Nick Bruel’s wildly popular Bad Kitty books— brings to life the comic adventures of Kitty and her quirky animal friends, not to mention a few zany humans, like Uncle Murray.

The production is directed by Benjamin Hanna, with book and underscoring music by Min Kahng. Hanna has previously directed BACT hit shows, Ivy +Bean, the Musical, and Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy, the Musical. Kahng created BACT’s award-winning musical version of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. BACT has co-commissioned the play with the Oregon Children’s Theatre.

Bad Kitty on Stage lasts 60 minutes, with no intermission, and is recommended for age 4 and up. Reserve now—BACT performs in San Ramon for one weekend only, with performances at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

TICKETS: $22 adults, $20 seniors, $18 children, $13 groups (minimum 15)

BOX OFFICE: www.bactheatre.org or call (925) 973-3343

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wSK2SFCXh5o

ARTISTS

Benjamin Hanna (Director) has served as BACT’s interim artistic director since October. A director and teaching artist, Hanna earned his degree in theatre arts from the University of Minnesota. He then worked at Children’s Theatre Company, SteppingStone Theatre for Youth Development, and Penumbra Theatre Company. For the past five years, Hanna led the Teen Council program at Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, mentoring hundreds of young artists. He has also directed productions for BACT, including the world premieres of Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy, the Musical, and Ivy + Bean, the Musical. In January, Hanna will begin an 18-month Leadership University fellowship at Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, focusing on artistic leadership and the creation of new work for young audiences. The fellowship is funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group.

Min Kahng (Playwright, Composer) is an award-winning Bay Area playwright and composer whose works include Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (recipient of three Theatre Bay Area Awards), The Song of the Nightingale, and Tales of Olympus, a Greek Myth Musical. His upcoming projects include The Four Immigrants, based on the comic book by Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama, and Story Explorers, a project supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts that will adapt stories created by children living with autism and other special needs into a fully produced musical. Kahng received a Theatre Bay Area 2014 Titan Award for Playwrights and was recognized in American Theatre magazine as one of “9 Musical Theatre Writers You Should Know.” He is also the marketing manager for BACT. www.minkahng.com

B. Warden Lawlor (Uncle Murray/Petunia/Hungry) is in his fourth season with BACT. A native San Franciscan, he graduated from The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York and has enjoyed performing both on and off stage ever since. When not on stage, he is busy at his other favorite activity, baking and making jams. He is grateful to his wife, Phaedra, for taking on the extra responsibility of caring for their own “bad kitties,” Gary and Prudence, while he has been at rehearsals.

Katie McGee (Mouse/Stinky Kitty) has performed for BACT as Nancy in Ivy + Bean, the Musical, and as Pinkalicious in Pinkalicious, the Musical. Offstage she enjoys teaching young theatre artists at Alta Vista School in San Francisco. Just this once, under these very special feline circumstances, she would like to thank her loyal cat Tony Jones-McGee.

Adam Niemann (Human/Dr. Lagomorph) joins BACT for the first time with Bad Kitty On Stage. A recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Niemann has worked with Berkeley Playhouse (Peter Pan), FaultLine Theater (Save the Children, Pardon My Vaudeville), the UC, Berkeley, Theater Department (The Pillowman, The Ruling Class), and BareStage Productions (Urinetown, Death, and Other Hobbies, Sweeney Todd). He has directed for the UC, Berkeley, Theater Department (Rabbit Hole) and BareStage (Wonder Girl). He also trained at the American Conservatory Theater’s 7-week intensive Summer Training Congress.

Jeunée Simon (Chatty Kitty/Baby/Miss Dee) makes her debut with BACT in this production. Simon has worked with companies such as Aluminous in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and H20 and The Custom Made Theatre Company in Peter Wendy and The Crucible. She has also been seen with the Ragged Wing Ensemble and The Breadbox. She hopes her Miss Dee is as caring and encouraging as her mother, Jacqueline Simon, who has been an inspiring and nurturing educator for over 20 years.

Sango Tajima (Kitty) returns to BACT after playing in Five Little Monkeys and serving as the assistant stage manager for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. An Oakland-based artist, Tajima grew up in the U.S., Japan, Tanzania, Trinidad, Tobago, and Thailand. She is co-founder of a new producing ensemble, Dirty Hands, member of a political theatre collective, The Bonfire Makers, and associate artist of Ragged Wing Ensemble. After serving as the artistic direction apprentice at Magic Theatre, she acted in various productions with Campo Santo, Impact Theatre, Cutting Ball Theater, Ragged Wing Ensemble, and New Conservatory Theatre Center. Recent roles include Rosaura in Cutting Ball Theater’s Life is a Dream, Orangutan in Dirty Hands’ Water by the Spoonful, and Philipa in Impact Theatre’s Year of the Rooster. Tajima earned her BFA in acting from the University of Michigan.

Max Thorne (Puppy) returns to BACT after playing Lionel in Fancy Nancy, the Musical, and Snail in A Year with Frog and Toad. Other Bay Area credits include Seymour (Little Shop of Horrors), Mark (Rent), and Moritz Stiefel (Spring Awakening) with Altarena Playhouse; Pinocchio (Shrek The Musical) and Leaf Coneybear (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) with Berkeley Playhouse; and Bobby (Cabaret) with Shakespeare at Stinson. Thorne has performed in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has competed nationally in the Thespian Conference Competition. He was recently featured at the Second Annual Theatre Bay Area Awards, singing “Suddenly Seymour” from Little Shop of Horrors, which was nominated for six TBA awards.

Phil Wong (Pianist/Narrator) is an actor, musician, and educator born and raised in Oakland. Some of his favorite Bay Area theatrical endeavors include The Taming of the Shrew (Grumio - SF Shakes), Blood Wedding (Father, Old Woman - The Breadbox), The Rocky Horror Show (Eddie/Dr.Scott - Boxcar Theatre), Candide (Cacambo - Lamplighters), the world premiere of Do the Math by Emily Galvin (Overcast Theater), and Chinglish (Bing/Geming - Palo Alto Players). This spring, he can be seen in Rob Matsushita’s Civil, the inaugural production of the Bay Area’s brand new science fiction and fantasy theatre company, Quantum Dragon. When he’s not theatrimafyzing and making up words, Phil has been known to play his accordion and monkey around at the Athletic Playground. He also frequently attempts to make people giggle at stand-up comedy open mics and showcases around the Bay. Phil lives with a very bad kitty named Mochi.

About the Bay Area Children’s Theatre

Established in 2004, the Bay Area Children’s Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, serves more than 72,000 children and adults throughout the Bay Area, with main stage performances in Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco and San Ramon; selected productions in local schools; and classes and summer camps in more than 10 East Bay communities.

Our Mission: To inspire young audiences with imaginative productions, introduce children of all backgrounds to the excitement of live theatre, and create an engaging, entertaining, and educational environment in which children and their families can explore and enjoy the arts.

How We Carry Out Our Mission:

· Bring high quality, professional theatre to children and their families, with artists who create vibrant worlds that are intriguing to young audiences

· Encourage young people to explore literature, language, and the arts by producing stage adaptations of great children’s books

· Engage preschoolers in the world of theatre with productions specially designed for them

· Develop and perform exciting new work for the stage

· Reach out to children who might not otherwise experience live theatre with free tickets, special performances for school groups, and touring productions at local schools

· Create touring productions for young audiences nationwide

· Partner with communities to meet the need for theatre education

· Introduce children to the joy of performance through our theatre education program