By Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia

First love for theatre usually comes at an early age. The Philly Theatre Casting Couch celebrated that youthful engagement with theatre when it visited the Moorestown Theatre Company’s production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, at the William Allen Middle School, in Moorestown, New Jersey on July 17^th.

The Philly Theatre Casting Couch, now in its second touring season, uses a talk show format to engage theatre fans in conversations with celebrity interviewers about what theatre means to them. The video-taped interviews are then posted to YouTube and are considered for advertisements about Philadelphia’s theatre scene.  At Moorestown Theatre Company, there was no lack of willing interviewees—from grandmothers to five year olds, some 32 enthusiastic theatre-goers in all.

One of the celebrity interviewers Sunday was 6ABC anchor Rick Williams, who is also an amateur actor appearing in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as Baron Bomburst. One of the people stopping by the couch to talk to Rick was Carol Ann Murray, the managing director of the Moorestown Theatre Company.  As Carol was talking to Rick, her eight year old daughter Juliet suddenly dropped down on the couch and gave her mother a hug and kiss as the camera rolled. Both mother and daughter are appearing in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, upholding the theatre’s commitment to providing opportunities for families to have fun participating in theatre together.  Rick William’s wife and son were also appearing in the show with him.

“Theatre is a community art form is so many ways,” said Margie Salvante, the Executive Director of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, which produces the Philly Theatre Casting Couch. “Whether it is the experience an audience shares at a masterful performance of a deeply meaningful play, or the joy shared amongst family and friends when they stage a fun musical together, the stories we hear on the couch are full of passion for being a part of theatre’s magic.”

The Philly Theatre Casting Couch, supported by an arts challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, is part of an audience engagement initiative aimed at doubling the number of theatre goers by 2020.  This popular program was first launched by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia in April of 2010 with appearances of the Philly Theatre Casting Couch throughout Center City.  This year it is reaching into other parts of the city and into the suburbs to engage audiences and practitioners from all sectors of the theatre community.