Children’s Theatre of Charlotte launches 75th season with new shows, returning favorites

Children’s Theatre of Charlotte is celebrating its 75th season in 2022-23 with style and flair, offering new shows, old favorites and the debut of a family festival.

The group’s history dates to 1948, when the Junior League of Charlotte formed the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte as a volunteer-run children’s programming organization following World War II. Since then, the company has grown into a top youth theater and educational organization in the country, reaching over 250,000 kids and their families annually.

Given its longevity and scope of influence, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles recently proclaimed Sept. 24 as “Children’s Theatre of Charlotte Day.”

In the Children’s Theatre’s new season, it will debut the classic musical “Annie,” which runs from Sept. 23 to Oct. 23. Two casts of kids will alternate roles in that show. This is the first time the company is performing the show, which is being directed by longtime Northwest School of the Arts teacher and Tony Award-winner Corey Mitchell.

The Charlotte Observer recently spoke with Artistic Director Adam Burke about the new season. Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

What can you tell us about “Annie”?

The pandemic was an extraordinary time, when children were really hammered with isolation and removal from society. We knew that this show, which is centered on optimism and hope, is one that we wanted to share with the community, but we needed somebody who has their finger on the pulse of the children in our community.

Having taught at Northwest School of the Arts for many years, and being well-connected with what young people experience, Corey Mitchell has a unique perspective on what a young person believes about the ideas of hope and optimism.

What are some other can’t-miss events in the new season?

I hope they’re all can’t-miss. “Confessions of a Former Bully” (Jan. 14-22, 2023) is a new piece that we’ll be touring with the touring company. The book is written by the same woman who wrote “The Invisible Boy” (Trudy Ludwig) that we adopted a few years ago as part of The Kindness Project. It’s a pretty amazing story that’s going to go to schools all over the state.

“Allie Kazan and the Magic Mansion” (Feb. 4-19, 2023) is a musical about kids that are going to compete at a national competition for magic. A ghost appears and everything starts to go wrong, and they have to figure out what’s happening. In our field, almost everything adapted into new plays is adapted from books and existing stories. This is original. There aren’t that many in children’s theater that are original stories.

“The Night Diary” (March 10-26, 2023) is a partnership with EnActe Arts. They are a South Asian touring company based in the U.S. The play is based on a book called “The Night Diary,” which was the 2019 Newbery nominee, about the partition. It’s also the 75th anniversary of the partition of India. EnActe is doing a season of all-partition plays but wasn’t aware of any plays for children, which is how we got involved. They’re going to take our production and tour it after we’re done.

And there’s “The Gathering,” (April 22-23, 2023) which we’re presenting in partnership with the Cherokee Historical Association. The hope is that through this partnership, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte and the Cherokee Historical Association will create a new piece together.

You’re hosting a Family Festival Sept. 24 from 1-4 p.m. at ImaginOn. What can people expect, and why did you decide to try something new this year?

We’ve been talking about doing something like this for a while. We want to create an event that will bring our community together — families and young people — with various fun activities, like stilt walkers and backstage tours.

We do events throughout the year that are high-energy and community-building. In May, we have our OnStage weekend, when students produce four shows that our students get to be in. That weekend, the energy of all those families coming together is electric.

We also have an education day, when we bring our education staff together and do backstage tours, show-and-tell of a particular element of the production afterwards. The success of some of those things led us to thinking this might be well-received.

What else are you excited about for this season?

Mike Wiley is returning with “Jackie Robinson: A Game Apart.” This will be our second year in a row presenting a Mike Wiley production. He is a really talented North Carolina artist. We love when we can both support North Carolina artists and expose our audiences to extraordinary artists like that, telling stories like Jackie Robinson. So we’re really excited about that one, Nov. 12-19.

It’s also our fifth year of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: The Musical.” (Nov. 18-Dec. 22) We had no idea it was going to be something we would do year after year, but it has been so popular but also meaningful to the organization. The show is a comedy, but there are moments that talk about a community isolating kids that are different, kids that are labeled as troublemakers or outsiders or have-nots.

And it’s about this community that believes they are righteous, good, kind... It’s really about the community learning something about itself and how to treat people.

Who is a performer to watch for in the new season and why?

I think both Annies are going to be pretty extraordinary. All of our kids in our shows are local students. Anaiah Jones and Emma Griggs (the Annies) went through an extensive audition process.

CTC launched the Kindness Project in 2017 to develop and commission original plays that promote active kindness on stage and off. What’s the latest with it?

It’s core now to who we are as an organization. Most of our productions have something to do with the idea of kindness as an act, kindness as a verb, as something you have to do.

But it’s also core when we onboard employees, when we talk to new artists, and it’s the thing we are trying to activate in children. If the purpose of theater is to promote activism, the activism we want to promote is kindness.

“A Sick Day for Amos McGee,” which just closed in-house, will be going on tour to kindergarten and first-grade classes all over North and South Carolina. It’s a Kindness Project piece. We intentionally go out and find a story where there is a dramatic moment of kindness that changes the outcome for the child in some way.

What’s the biggest challenge you are facing now?

Our biggest challenge is to be responsive and relevant to the community — to remember that it’s about the community that you are serving and not about what (we) might want to do as artists. We are here in service to our community, and we use our artistic resources and sensibilities as our method of serving the community.

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