About Bay Area Children's Theatre

Bay Area Children's Theatre (BACT) was founded in 2004 as Active Arts Theatre for Young Audiences to bring high quality theatre to family audiences in the Bay Area. We specialize in literary adaptations of great children’s books. Through challenging and exciting productions that emphasize artistic excellence, we seek to engage a new generation of theatergoers and inspire young people to open their imaginations to new worlds. BACT is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Mission

To inspire young audiences with imaginative productions, introduce children of all backgrounds to the excitement of live theatre, and create an engaging, entertaining, and educational environment in which children and their families can explore and enjoy the arts.

Our Programs

Bay Area Children's Theatre has four programs: Main-stage productions, educational drama classes, touring productions, and pre-kindergarten special productions.

We produce main stage productions in Berkeley, San Ramon, San Francisco, and Saratoga. Our performances feature professional adult performers. We hire designers and directors who bring vibrant, creative worlds to life and who understand how to make theatre accessible for young audiences. Our productions usually open in Berkeley and then move to other theatrical venues throughout the Bay Area to reach broader audiences.

Under the auspices of the City of San Ramon, we offer drama classes and camps for children ages 3 to 16. Our classes focus on ensemble performance, teamwork, and confident communication. We offer after-school enrichment classes in elementary schools, plus a variety of age-appropriate musical theatre production classes. All of our instructors are trained as both artists and educators.

We tour every two years to local schools, libraries, and community centers. Our touring show allows us to reach audiences who would not be able to attend our main stage productions because of financial or geographic barriers. In 2009, we launched our first national tour of the musical, “Strega Nona,” in association with Maximum Entertainment.

For our pre-kindergarten special performances, we bring to life books that the youngest readers enjoy with their parents. These productions are in partnership with Children’s Fairyland, a non-profit, ten-acre park for young children and their families on the shores of Oakland’s Lake Merritt.