RAGTIME

“I was introduced to the musical Ragtime early in my artistic career. I didn’t realize that I was being introduced to some of the most profound song lyrics ever written and a seminal story about the American dream, immigration, gender identity, gun violence, interracial families and the movement that prefigured Black Lives Matter. Thank goodness I was.” - Rodney Earl Jackson Jr., SFBATCO Artistic Director

PRESENTED BY SFBATCO and SFArtsEd

DIRECTED BY Danny Duncan
MUSIC DIRECTION BY G. Scott Lacy

DATE July 23, 2017 at 5PM
LOCATION Nourse Theatre, SF

DESCRIPTION Multiple generations unite for powerful musical that asks: Who owns the American dream?

SFArtsEd and SFBATCO joined forces to present the powerful musical Ragtime for a one night only performance. More than 50 young performers (ages 9 to 14) from SFArtsED Summer’s Broadway Bound program perform alongside SFBATCO company members and SFArtsED alumni, some of whom have gone on to careers as professional performers.

This production invited young professionals to serve as mentors as well as co-stars to the younger performers from SFArtsED camps and musical theater company. This key relationship between experienced artist and student is a tenet of both SFArtsED and SFBATCO.

STARRING Rodney Earl Jackson Kr. as Coalhouse Walker Jr., Angela Travino as Mother, Adam Maggio as Tateh, Alex Akin as Sarah, and Sergey Khalikulov as Father.

“Every few years we produce a summer musical with a multi-generational cast. When Rodney and the SFBATCO group brought the idea of Ragtime to us as a collaboration with our summer camp, we felt immediately that this was the right show for this time. Ragtime grapples with the American Dream, and who among us gets to partake of its fruits. The story comes alive with a sweeping, heartbreaking score, sweetened with the sound of ragtime music. As in summers past, the show brings back past students of our programs as participating performers and mentors for the younger students. All will take their place on the stage to perform this story of the turn of the last century and its challenges. And all will raise their voices in this embattled moment as artists have always done: with talent, skill and passion.” - Emily Keeler, SFArtsED Artistic Director