CCR Hosts Children's Theatre Performance at SOPAC

The South Orange/Maplewood Community Coalition on Race (CCR) will sponsor a special theater performance for children, as part of its "Integration through the Arts" program, at the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) on Saturday, March 16 at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. A $5 donation is recommended.

This year’s program includes a theater production for children using two well-known children’s books.  These productions are live theater performances by local professionals that use stories to get kids to think about fairness and discrimination, to learn to not fear people who are different, and to work together to solve problems. 

Gertrude McFuzz, which demonstrates how accepting our differences can be the source of our strength and success, will be brought to life using the musical score by Robert Kapilow, local actors, singers, dancers and musicians including opera star Lori Mirabal. 

The second part of the performance is a theatrical reading by Broadway actress Emily Zaccharias that will be performed with dance, bass and drum accompaniments of Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell.  It is a funny story about a little girl who is picked because she looks different and how she manages to change people’s perceptions.

Integration through the Arts has three goals: 1) to use the arts to pull down the barriers of cultural and social segregation between residents of different races 2) to provide high-quality arts experiences for residents 3) to provide for collaborative associations between professional artists as well as an opportunity for these artists to share their talents locally. 

This program seeks to strengthen the community bond among residents from different races, neighborhoods and religious/cultural backgrounds through the arts. We use shared interests in the arts as a catalyst for building authentic relationships between people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. 

The Community Coalition received a grant from the Essex County Local Arts Program (ECLAP)