School House Rock Jr. Live! Just in Time for Back to School

The Greenwich Odeum and Experiments in Theater will present School House Rock Jr. on Friday, August 14 at 2:30 PM and 7:30 PM at The Greenwich Odeum, 59 Main Street, East Greenwich, RI. Tickets are $5 each for the 2:30 PM preview and $7.50-$10 each for the 7:30 PM performance and may be purchased online at http://theodeum.org/ or in person at The Greenwich Odeum’s Box Office partner, Main Street Music on 4 King Street, East Greenwich, RI. The duration of the performance is approximately 45 minutes and is appropriate for families and children of all ages.

School House Rock Jr. is a live adaptation of the Emmy winning, animated educational videos that aired in the 1970’s and ‘80’s on ABC during their Saturday morning children’s lineup. In all, ABC televised over 40 original episodes of School House Rock that introduced young audiences to educational concepts in science, economics, grammar, civics, math and history. Some of the most memorable songs from the series have been assembled in this production including “I’m Just a Bill,” “Conjunction Junction,” “Interjections,” and “The Great American Melting Pot.”

School House Rock Jr. is directed by Experiments in Theater owner Valerie Remillard Myette of North Kingstown and is performed by 39 young people ages 7-14 who come from East Greenwich, North Kingstown, Cranston, Warwick, Hope Valley and Exeter.

Ms. Remillard Myette explains, “Our production of School House Rock Jr. is the culmination of an advanced musical theater camp. We opened registration for the camp in May, distributed the scripts and held auditions in July but the actors won’t come together for their first rehearsal until Monday, August 10 -- four days before the performance. The actors are expected to have their songs and lines memorized by the first day of camp, then we have 5 days of rehearsal and the show goes up. It still works out to about 30 hours of rehearsal for a 45 minute play, which is totally do-able, but still challenging. I’m calling it a ‘joyful intensity’ and, based upon what I saw at auditions, this group is going to make it all look easy.”

The cast of School House Rock Jr. includes North Kingstown residents Elijah Prescott, Liliana Faherty, Abbey Pezza, Lauren Rogers, Jayden Russo, Addison Ralphs and Jordan Scott.