Northwest Children’s Theater & School presents
Pinocchio
adapted by Milo Mowery; composed by Rodolfo Ortega

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 29 at 7:00 pm, Jan 30 at 2:00 and 7:00 pm, Jan 31 at 2:00 pm

Full Extended Run: January 29 – February 21, 2009
Venue: Northwest Neighborhood Cultural Center (1819 NW Everett)
Single Tickets: $18 - $22. Call 503-222-4480 or online at www.nwcts.org
Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: $2

“Look at that! What do you know? It is gears and wheels that make me go!”

From a pile of shiny scrap metal comes the buzz, clink and whir of the original toy story! This industrial musical is the tale of Gepetto’s brand-new mechanical boy who learns, through much trial and many errors, what it means to be human. NWCT World Premiere!

Play after Play presents
The Gentle People – An Ancient Legend from Patagonia
created by Melanya Helene and Marc Otto

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 23 at 10:00 am, Jan 24 at 2:00 pm, Jan 30 at 10:00 am and Jan 31 at 2:00 pm.

Full Extended Run: January 23rd - February 14th, 2010
Venue: The Brooklyn Bay (1825 SE Franklin St)
Single Tickets: $7 (under 2 free) Call 503-772-4005or online at www.playafterplay.com
Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: $2

First the Play:  The gentle people live happily in harmony with the natural world.  When they are discovered by the greedy selfish people, they must make a difficult decision to maintain their peaceful way of life. This touching story, filled with lively music and engagingly physical performances will captivate children and adults alike.  Most appropriate for ages 2-9.  Then the “Play”:  After the play, kids of all ages are invited to come out and play!  This is an opportunity to the kids to interact with the performers one on one.  The kids are invited to come onto the mats and crawl, roll and tumble on, under and all around the performers.

Oregon Children’s Theatre presents
Small Steps
by Louis Sachar, adopted from the book by Louis Sachar

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 22 at 2:00 pm
Venue: Madison High School Library (2735 NE 82nd Ave)
Single Tickets: FREE Reserve seats at 503-228-9571 or online at www.octc.org
Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: FREE

Two years after being released from Camp Green Lake Juvenile Correctional Facility, Armpit is back in Austin, Texas, working at a landscaping company and trying to change his life, taking small steps. He sets five goals for himself, determined to keep moving forward. 1. Graduate from high school. 2. Get a job. 3. Save some money. 4. Avoid situations that might get violent. 5. Lose his nickname Armpit. Things are going smoothly until X-Ray, a friend from Camp Green Lake, turns up unexpectedly with a get-rich-quick scheme. The plan sounds simple. Kaira DeLeon, the famous teen pop star, is playing a concert in Austin. All X-Ray and Armpit have to do is buy tickets when they go on sale, mark up the price, and sell them to concertgoers. Reluctantly, Armpit agrees to the scheme, but things don’t go nearly as smoothly as X-Ray promises they will. Armpit ends up taking Ginny, his ten-year old neighbor, to the concert, and a series of unexpected events leads to Armpit nearly getting arrested, and a chance encounter with Kaira herself! Suddenly, Armpit’s life is spinning out of control and he finds himself trying to keep himself and X-Ray out of jail, avoid angry ticket scalpers, and even on a plane to San Francisco. Louis Sachar’s sequel to Holes follows Armpit as he maneuvers through the unexpected, the dangerous, and even the romantic—all the while trying to keep his goals in sight, take small steps, and keep moving forward.

Northwest Children’s Theater & School presents
Don’t Let the Pigeons Drive the Bus!
from the book by Mo Willems; adapted by Sarah Jane Hardy and John Ellingson; music and lyrics by Ezra Weiss 

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 31 at 6:00 pm
Venue: Northwest Neighborhood Cultural Center (1819 NW Everett)
Single Tickets: FREE
Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: It’s FREE!

“Hey, can I drive the bus? Please…? COME ON!!”

Finally, a play you can say “no” to! When a bus driver takes a break, a wheeling-and-dealing pigeon begs to take his place! The popular book takes flight as audiences get on the bus and move to a Latin groove in this original musical about a little bird with BIG dreams. NWCT World Premiere!

Oregon Children’s Theatre presents
Texting the Sun
by Matt Zrebski

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 24 at 7:30 pm
Venue: CoHo Theater (2257 NW Raleigh)
Single Tickets: FREE
Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: FREE

Texting the Sun is a relevant, thought-provoking production which spotlights our 21st-century, multi-media reality through the eyes of young adolescents. How are they—along with their parents, teachers and counselors—expected to cope with the minute-to-minute assault of news cycles, advertising campaigns, social sites, video games, cell phones, and instant messaging? How are they to know what’s real or unreal? Fact or fiction? Helfpul or hurtful? Safe…or dangerous?

PlayWrite with New Avenues for Youth
by the students at New Avenues for Youth 

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 26 at 2:00 pm
Venue: Mezzanine, Gerding Theater at the Armory (128 NW 11th)
Single Tickets: FREE. Just show up!

Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: FREE

This event shares works in progress of teens from New Avenues for Youth and the dedicated work of PlayWrite coaches, who invest their time with these remarkable young people. Who knows what direction their insights will take by the time the curtain goes up? Come find out… Now entering its seventh year, PlayWrite engages youth in a carefully structured process of creating original plays and songs.  The program targets young people in under-served areas.  The sessions involve an intensive three-week residency, bringing young people together with PlayWrite-trained coaches.  Young participants work one-on-one with coaches to create a play, using non-human characters.  In the final step, public performance, the students become directors, collaborating with professional actors who perform their work for the community. Students, coaches and performers alike learn that putting feelings into language and song is a healing, restorative, and nurturing process, transforming the lives of everyone involved.