Partner Profile: Making Books Sing

In an earlier blog post, we wrote about the upcoming musical production based on Chachaji's Cup that is premiering this month. Now we'd like to highlight the organization that made it possible.

Making Books Sing is an independent nonprofit theater organization based in New York City. Their goal is to empower children to experience the performing arts and literature as vehicles for their imaginations, artistic expression, and learning. Children’s Book Press has partnered with Making Books Sing twice before, on musical adaptations of The Upside Down Boy (in 2004) and A Shelter in Our Car (in 2007). Following is an excerpt from an interview with Barbara Zinn Krieger, Making Books Sing's Artistic Director.

 
What does Making Books Sing do?
Making Books Sing commissions, produces, and tours musicals based on quality children's literature. Our productions tour with live music; Equity actors; and full lights, costumes, sets and multimedia. They’ve reached over 80,000 school and family audience members from across New York City. Performances are supplemented by our signature education program, Literature at Play, which annually engages up to 4,500 elementary and middle schools in the adaptation of contemporary literature into plays, songs, dance and musicals.
 
Can you tell us a bit more about the communities you serve?
Our primary audience is school-age children, attending productions with their teachers and families. Our PreK-8th grade audience includes African-American, Asian, Latino, White, and American Indian students. More than one-third [of them] are identified as special education or English Language Learners.
 
How do you choose the books you use in your theatrical program?
The types of books we look to adapt into musicals have a social or historical component, and celebrate cultures and peoples that are rarely seen in the theater. They have high standards of artistry and content, and don’t talk down to young readers. Chachaji’s Cup, the Children’s Book Press title we’ve adapted for our upcoming production, "Tea with Chachaji," is a perfect example of the type of book we look to use as source material. The book depicts the Indian-American experience through the eyes of a young boy, and touches on Indian history and Hindu folklore. It presents sophisticated subject matter in a way in which young audiences can relate.
 
What is next for Making Books Sing? Can we expect to see more productions based on Children's Book Press titles?
Yes, in fact we are already planning an adaptation of another book [to be announced]. It will be a one-woman show to be performed in libraries.

Submitted by Childrens Book Press on Friday, January 8, 2010 3:33pm