Julietta Blogs: Meeting Nick Bruel and the Kitty Creative Team!

BACT Blogger Julietta shares her perspective on a special donor event during which author Nick Bruel and members of the Bad Kitty On Stage creative team spoke about the show's creation.

---

The Bad Kitty BACT donor event was really cool! Donors who give money to BACT support them because they appreciate the work they put into making a play. BACT gives back by writing plays and musicals for the whole bay area to enjoy! Donating to BACT helps them to create these plays and musicals for school kids who have never seen a play before. Nina Meehan, the executive director, said that at one of their school day matinee performances, almost everyone raised their hand when they asked who had never seen a play before. Even donating a small amount can make a huge difference.

Julietta gets her book signed by Nick Bruel!

At the donor event, they had the Bad Kitty author, Nick Bruel, the Bad Kitty On Stage costume designer, Amy, the director, Benjamin Hanna, and Min Kahng, who is the one who brought bad kitty to stage, talk about how they made Bad Kitty On Stage! The actor playing Bad Kitty even stopped by while on lunch break! Bad Kitty is a book series by Nick. He creates a character by drawing it and using a pen instead of a pencil so he isn't tempted to erase anything. Nick said it was easiest to find what bad kitty looks like because he had a cat named Zuzu who was all black, except for a patch of white on her chest. It took him 9 months to make the first book in the series, and now it takes him 6-7 months because now he knows the characters and what they look like so he only needs to make up a story with these characters.

I had never heard of Bad Kitty before, and now I'm a huge fan and cannot wait to see the play! At the end, I had my book, Happy Birthday, Bad Kitty! signed by Nick Bruel, and I also got a Bad Kitty mask signed! I was so excited to read the book after that, so I read my book all the way home and it is one of my most favorite books now! If BACT hadn't chosen great books like Bad Kitty, I wouldn't had known about Bad Kitty and a lot of the other books BACT turned into such great plays! I like that even the authors appreciate the plays BACT makes from their books! BACT makes the best plays I know and I cannot wait to see Bad Kitty On Stage soon!

Charlette Blogs: Meeting Nick Bruel and the Kitty Creative Team!

Sango Tajima & Nick Bruel signing posters at the show!

When I was invited to see the author Nick Bruel I was so excited. I heard him talk about his books Bad Kitty, and I heard the BACT theater people talk about the play that they made from his books. The author Nick Bruel has 2 cats now, but he had one when he was a child. Bad Kitty looked like his childhood cat named Zou-Zou. The cat was black from the tip of his ears to the the very tip of his tail, but just a big clump of white on his chest.  It took Nick Bruel nine months to finish his first book. He went to college and got a degree in English. Nick Bruel started out with board books for younger children and he really really wanted the kids to continue loving Bad Kitty books even when they're older.  So he started making chapter books of Bad Kitty, so older kids can read Bad Kitty too.

 

Amy Bobeda was the costume designer for the play. Some white feathers was used for Bad Kitty's chest of its costume. She clipped it onto overalls that Bad Kitty wore in the play. I am so excited to see the costumes that everyone will be wearing. I think maybe it was really hard to sew and put together all the costumes. I think she is very talented. 

Sango Tajima played Bad Kitty in the play. She came in on her lunch break so she couldn't stay there the whole time because she had work still, but I still think it was nice of her to come. Bad Kitty does not talk. She makes cat noises like purr or meow. She had to practice making the cat noises. She also had to look in the book and see how the cat positions looked like. I think it was hard for her to make cat noises to go with the feelings of Bad Kitty.

 

Min Kahng wrote the play Bad Kitty.  Min Kahng really really wanted for the audience to be excited and wowed during the play. He mentioned that in a comic book, on every page you see a pow or a boom it makes the reader excited. Min wanted that for every scene of the play. He worked with the director named Benjamin Hanna. I think it was hard for him to to direct all the characters. I bet he worked very hard.

 

The pianist and narrator of the play was Phil Wong. I think it was amazing that he can talk normal and play piano at the same time. He said he had to practice alot! The music was live because when in the play someone stomps or jumps really hard they would make a sound on the piano and match it with the action Bad Kitty was doing. I think he is awesome. 

Our BACT Bloggers: Kara, Julietta & Charlette!

After they were done speaking, Nick Bruel the author of Bad Kitty signed my book, Bad Kitty for President. Now, I am so excited to see this play and see everything come alive on stage.

---

You can also see this play and see everything come alive on stage! Bad Kitty On Stage runs in Berkeley thru February 21 at the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse. The show then has a run in San Ramon from February 27-28 at the Dougherty Valley Performing Arts Center, and in San Francisco from March 5-26 at the Children's Creativity Museum Theater. Purchase your tickets today!

Min Kahng Discusses Adapting Bad Kitty for the Stage

Playwright Min Kahng. Photo by Ben Krantz.

By Vivian Auslander

He created BACT’s award-winning musical version of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and our hit Tales of Olympus: A Greek Myth Musical. Now, the multi-talented Min Kahng is writing the script and the musical score for our upcoming world premiere of Bad Kitty on Stage! Below, he discusses what inspired him about Nick Bruel ‘s popular Bad Kitty comic series and how he is adapting the series for young audiences.

Q:  How did Bad Kitty on Stage! come to be?

A:  Our Executive Director Nina Meehan proposed the project—her sons were reading the series and loving it.  When I read the books, the first thing that jumped out at me was their unique style—a combination of comic books and chapter books—and I thought it would be fun and interesting to put that style onstage.  But I needed to feel an emotional resonance as well, and two of the books grabbed me right away—Bad Kitty Meets the Baby, which explores how Kitty reacts to the new addition to her family, and Bad Kitty School Daze, which struck me because the amazingly patient teacher tells Kitty at the end of the day that she doesn’t think she’s a bad kitty at all. I can imagine children needing reinforcement like that and how it would help them grow.  In fact, all the animal characters in the series are childlike, with their unique quirks and eccentricities, and they are all working on growing up.  For me, the stories are about what it’s like to grow up and learn important lessons, and I’ve kept that in mind along with the humor and the quirkiness to help make the story line cohesive and authentic.

Q: In the series, Kitty doesn’t use words.  How do you make that work on stage?

Actor Sango Tajima as Bad Kitty. Photo by Melissa Nigro.

A: We debated that a lot at the beginning, wondering if we should have Kitty speak.  But we wanted to be faithful to the universe of the books.  So the challenge was what that meant—how do you translate the images in the books to a human actor?  Casting was the key, and we are extremely fortunate to have Sango Tajima, a gifted physical actor whose face can tell you what Kitty is feeling in a cartoon manner that is also genuine!  It was clear to us from the first reading of the play, just from Sango’s face and movements, that she could tell the story.  And, in the script, while I write “meow” or other animal sounds, I also include parenthetical statements of what I want the sounds to mean to guide the actors as to what their intention should be.

Q:  What were your goals for the music that underscores the action of the play?

A:  When I started thinking about the style of the music, I recalled the Saturday morning cartoons I’d watched as a child—like Looney Tunes, where the background music plays such a big role in setting the mood and creating the sound effects.  I wanted to incorporate that sensibility into the play. Then, we workshopped the play, and realized that the music had to be performed live to provide vibrant energy and to choreograph precisely with what’s happening on stage.  We were very lucky to find Phil Wong, who is both an actor and a pianist.  Phil will be our narrator, and he’ll play the score and improvise as needed. I’m very excited to be collaborating with him.  He’ll take what I compose and give us his feedback about how it’s working with the characters and the scenes.

Q:  The Bay Area Children’s Theatre has co-commissioned Bad Kitty On Stage! with the Oregon Children’s Theatre.  What does that mean?

A:  Both companies are producing this show for the first time—our run begins in January, theirs in February.  And it’s been a fascinating experience for me, because I have to make sure the script and the music work for both productions.  For example, the sets for our BACT shows have to be compact and moveable, since we perform in three different locations.  Oregon has a big traditional proscenium stage. When we send Kitty up into a “tree,” we are working with the idea of a tree.  Their production includes something much more like a real tree, so they’ll need enough transition music for Kitty to get into and out of the tree.  My challenge is to make the score and the script elastic enough to meet different needs.

Director Benjamin Hanna at our first read-thru with the Bad Kitty cast.

Q:  Now that the show is in rehearsal, what is your role?

A: I’ll be in the rehearsal room to help clear up any questions about the script or how the music fits into the action on stage. I can make changes or re-write as the needs arise. 

Q:  Nick Bruel, the author and illustrator of the Bad Kitty books, will be here for the opening?

A:  Yes. He reached out to us when he was visiting the Bay Area some months ago.  He was pleased and surprised by how faithful our adaptation is to the series, which made me feel good, because I wanted to capture the spirit of the books.  He will be here for our opening day performances, signing books and joining us for a reception with our donors.

--

Bad Kitty On Stage opens at Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse in downtown Berkeley on January 23rd. The show runs from January 23-February 21 in Berkeley, February 27-28 in San Ramon, and March 5-26 in San Francisco. Click here to purchase tickets.

BACT Receives National Endowment for the Arts Grant

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has selected the Bay Area Children's Theatre as one of 919 organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant.

The NEA has recommended that BACT receive a grant of $10,000 to help develop and produce an original musical inspired by stories created by children with special needs.

“We are thrilled to have been honored with this NEA grant, which recognizes our commitment to creating new work and to representing the stories of all children on our stages,” said BACT Executive Director Nina Meehan.

Playwright and composer Min Kahng

BACT will work with playwright and composer Min Kahng to create the new musical.  Kahng most recently wrote and composed BACT’s award-winning musical adaptation of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. 

The creation process will begin with a series of workshops in partnership with schools and organizations that serve children with special needs. BACT will lead dramatic workshops with the children to help them find and express their creative voice and storytelling skills.  Kahng will use selected stories from the children as inspiration for a musical, which will be performed by professional actors during BACT’s 2016-2017 season. 

“It has been a dream of mine to offer sensory-friendly performances to children with special needs,” Meehan said.  “This NEA grant helps us take that dream even further, by representing the voices of children with special needs on our stages.  We will be working hard in the months ahead to secure the additional funding required to bring this exciting project to fruition.”

Announcing the NEA grants, NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, “I’m pleased to be able to share the news of our support through Art Works, including the award to the Bay Area Children’s Theatre. The arts foster value, connection, creativity and innovation for the American people, and these recommended grants demonstrate those attributes and affirm that the arts are part of our everyday lives.” 

Art Works grants support the creation of art, public engagement with art, lifelong learning in the arts, and enhancement of the livability of communities through the arts.  The NEA received 1,474 eligible applications under the Art Works category, requesting more than $75 million in funding. Of those applications, 919 are recommended for grants, for a total of $26.6 million.

Writing Mountain - A Blog Post by Playwright/Composer Min Kahng

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon opens February 22

When I was asked to adapt Where the Mountain Meets the Moon into a stage musical, my initial thought was: “This is impossible.” Grace Lin’s book is intricate and poetic, with multiple stories intertwining. In codex form, this makes for an exciting reading experience. I found myself flipping back and forth throughout the book to remember certain characters or stories, and being delighted when I stumbled upon a new connection or revelation. Unfortunately, during a theatre performance, an audience member can’t flip through the scenes to remind themselves of previous occurrences. This problem of form initially seemed like a Herculean task – how can I even come close to the beautiful vignette-like structure of Lin’s work?

Then I realized that I was neglecting something fairly obvious. There is a through-line story in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and a very strong one. The character of Minli is going on a journey to change her family’s fortune. Though she meets a colorful array of characters along the way, each with their own stories, it is Minli who we follow and root for. There is also a secondary through-line which balances Minli’s incredible journey – the story of her parents. I started to see that focusing in on these two threads (rather than trying to highlight every story found in the book) would help keep a live audience engaged. This centered my writing, and it also became a benchmark for deciding which stories to include in our production. With each moment in the book, I’d ask “Does it directly serve the central story arcs of Minli and her parents?” If it does, then include it. If not, then let it go.

Of course, there was some major adjusting done along the way. Some plot points that seemed crucial turned out to be secondary. Others that seemed miniscule, ended up being key to help the audience’s understanding and appreciation of the story (Thank goodness for workshops with audience feedback!). And there were some moments in the book that needed to be altered in order to help with the flow of the musical.

Throughout the development process, I had very constructive meetings with director Mina Morita and dramaturg Oona Hatton. We became a “story team,” bouncing ideas off each other, trying new things, mulling over what the overall style and feel of the show would be. This gathering of strong-minded creative-types could have become a crucible of conflicts and disagreements, but I am amazed and quite proud of how the three of us discussed, listened to and experimented with ideas in a respectful (and often times jovial) environment. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon: A Musical Adaptation is all the stronger, and I am a better writer because of these collaborators.

Now, halfway through Tech Week, I am even more amazed at the dedication that the cast, designers and creative team are bringing to the work. Actors, musicians, choreography, costumes, sets, props, sound and lights are all breathing life into the story. It is a quiet kind of joy to see something you’ve written being treated respectfully and taken seriously by other artists. I am thankful to be surrounded by folks who are so good at what they do. I am also thankful for the support my writing has received from Bay Area Children’s Theatre. I now think my initial statement about writing Mountain was correct, but with an added clause: “This is impossible without the help of others.” How appropriate, since this is also one of the key lessons Minli learns on her journey.

---

Min Kahng is a playwright/composer living in the Bay Area. His previous works include Tales of Olympus: A Greek Myth Musical and The Song of the Nightingale. Kahng is also the Marketing Coordinator and a Youth Education Program Instructor for Bay Area Children's Theatre.

www.minkahng.com