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Game of Thrones Season 7 has begun, but it is not very child friendly. However, Sesame Street has come through for us. I present to you Sesame Street: Game of Chairs.

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Flashback Friday: Johannah Easley (Akeelah) and Sean Phinney (Dylan) in CTC’s 2015 production of Akeelah and the Bee http://playsforyoungaudiences.org/scri…/akeelah-and-the-bee/

Photo Credit: Dan Norman

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Need a gift idea for your niece’s fifth birthday (that you RSVPed for last year)? Or maybe looking at picture books helps you relax? Either way, here are three children’s titles, all out in June, that caught my eye in the mail pile: 

Life by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Brendan Wenzel

Life offers advice to children from animals – the wild geese, the rabbit in the field  –  who have weathered good times and bad.

Blue Sky White Stars by Sarvinder Naberhaus, illustrated by Kadir Nelson

Just in time for the Fourth of July, Blue Sky White Stars explores symbols of America, from a sunny baseball game to a spaceship blasting off at Cape Canaveral.

Renato and The Lion by Barbara DiLorenzo

Set in World War II Florence, Italy, Renato and The Lion tells the story of a boy, his favorite piazza and the stone lion statue there that makes him feel safe. His family is forced to flee to America because of the war, but decades later, when he finally makes it back, the statue is still standing.

- Intern Sydnee

Life images courtesy of Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Images; Blue Sky, White Stars images courtesy of Penguin Random House; Renato and The Lion images courtesy of Viking Books for Young Readers.

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Today's TBT: Iqbal, by Jerome Hairston, based on the book by Francesco D’Adamo, winner of the 2010 AATE Distinguished Play Award. Featuring J. Aritt, P. Shukla, S. Bijwadia, J. Jue, A. Rivera and I. Davis.

Photo credit: Dan Norman.

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The summer is a popular time for family vacations. If it's a road trip, kiddos often ask "Are we there yet?"; however, if you decide to take a plane, have you ever wondered How High Is Up? Today's TBT is a photo from the 1994 production at Theatre Centre in the UK of How High is Up? by Brendan Murray.

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When it's 87 degrees outside, don't you just wish you could be 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea? Well, perhaps not in this submarine, from Ryan Underbakke's play, as the characters are surrounded by a gigantic sea monster.

Photo Credit: Dan Norman

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@Lin_Manuel: This young man sang Hamilton &he started crying & I started crying & then errybody 🇵🇷

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Four years studying English literature means I’m allowed to put Billy Shakes on my cap.

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A First Look Inside Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

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Great news!

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Hamilton’s reach spreads beyond Broadway. Since the musical opened in 2015, it’s won almost every possible theatre award, including 11 Tonys and the Pulitzer Prize. Its cast recording has gone platinum and hit No. 1 on the rap chart. A large part of Hamilton’s appeal is that it takes the story of America’s Founding Fathers and recasts it in contemporary terms — the score is an amalgam of hip-hop, R&B and pop, and the cast is multiracial. As author and star Lin-Manuel Miranda says, “It’s a story about America then, told by what America looks like now.”

It’s also become a popular teaching tool in America’s classrooms. With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and a curriculum developed by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 20,000 New York City high school juniors are not only getting to see the hottest show in town for 10 dollars a ticket — a “Hamilton” — they’re also taking a deep dive into American history. Gilder Lehrman has provided a website with primary source documents, and the students spend a month researching and coming up with their own creative responses to the material; they write songs, raps, poems and scenes. Representatives from each participating high school then get to perform onstage at the Richard Rodgers Theatre before seeing a matinee performance of Hamilton on the very same stage.

‘Hamilton’: A Story Of Us

Photo: Walter McBride/Courtesy of the Gilder Lehrman Institute 

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Billie attended the Primary Shakespeare Company’s production of Macbeth.

Said, and I quote:

“Camden kids absolutely bloody nailing Macbeth! X”

Love that SHE loves and supports youth theater. 💟

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Hate will never win.

James Corden, Tony Awards (via writerchickmarie)

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Get your tickets now for “Pinocchio” at the Children’s Theatre! “Pinocchio is the clutch-poppingest, lustiest, take-it-to-10-and-let-her-rippest most insanely creative show to come down ye olde pike in a long time.” -How Was the Show?

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Two London Theatres Honor Orlando Shooting Victims With Rainbow Flags