Segerstrom offers its first play commissioned just for kids, ‘Musicians of Bremen Live!’
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Families looking to instill in young children a love for the stage will want to make Costa Mesa their destination this weekend, as Segerstrom Center for the Arts hosts the world premiere of a production created for kids.
“Musicians of Bremen Live!” is a vibrant reimagining of a classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale “The Bremen Town Musicians,” co-produced as a collaboration between Belfast-based theater company Cahoots of Northern Ireland and the local performing arts nonprofit.
Set in the American Southwest, the tale follows a quartet of musically talented animals — a hen named Ruffles, Mule, Bobcat and Coyote — who are fleeing the mistreatment of their human owners and must overcome their natural differences to realize their dream of becoming world-famous musicians.
Geared toward young theatergoers ages 4 to 8, the hourlong musical play takes place in the Samueli Theater with two afternoon shows on Saturday and Sunday preceded by an hour of free activities in the lobby, where kids can make their own prop instruments and try their own hand at storytelling.
“Musicians of Bremen Live!” is a part of Segerstrom Center’s Family Series, designed to make live theater performances more accessible to young viewers, according to Lisa Peterson, vice president of education.
“There’s been a hefty amount of research showing when you have a child who’s experienced going to the theater by age 8, they are more likely to become theatergoers as adults,” Peterson said. “In the Family Series our shows are meant to serve younger audiences. The themes are specific to what families are working through in terms of a child’s development at that point in their lives.”
Cahoots NI Artistic Director Paul Bosco Mc Eneaney said he co-founded the theater company in 2001 out of a desire to create shows for children that were just as well-written, produced and staged as traditional offerings.
“It was like an entry level sport. If you couldn’t get work in the proper theater you went into children’s theater,” Mc Eneaney recalled Wednesday. “I had a sense that wasn’t fair, and I’m still on that quest, I suppose. We invest heavily in making work for young audiences that’s got all the production standards we expect as adults.”
Cahoots is no stranger to Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The troop’s past performances include “Secrets of Space,” “Shh! We have a Plan” and “University of Wonder and Imagination,” an interactive theater experience that came to Samueli Theater last March.
In 2022, the two organizations began discussing a production that would have its world premier in Costa Mesa. They discussed international borders — such as that between the United States and Mexico and the one separating Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland — and how people from different backgrounds live and work together in a common culture.
“The Bremen Town Musicians” presented music as a perfect backdrop against which to portray a varied cast of animal characters struggling to harmonize to fulfill their dreams, Mc Eaneany said.
“They can all play instruments, but they wouldn’t listen to each other, so there’s a disharmony for the first 20 minutes,” he said. “Disharmony suddenly becomes harmony only by listening. And that gives you an anchor from which to develop the themes we wanted to talk about.”
The result of that collaboration is a dazzling display that is sure to transfix audiences of all ages, according to Peterson, who managed to catch a preshow performance for school audiences Wednesday.
“Just seeing their reactions was so exciting,” she said. “That magic of a shared theater experience can only really happen in this type of setting.”
“Musicians of Bremen Live!” takes place Saturday, at 1 and 4:30 p.m., and at 1 and 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets start at $28.25. Visit scfta.org/shows-events.
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