Children's Theatre Company Collaborates With BMG To Create New Punk Musical

Children's Theatre Company announced today they are entering the development phase on a new punk rock musical based on the award-winning book, The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez. This premiere production will feature select songs from the BMG catalog. BMG proudly represents the music publishing of such iconic artists as Blondie, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Devo, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Billy Idol, Simple Minds, The Cramps, Television, The Slits, The Germs, Chrissie Hynde & The Pretenders, and more.

Elyse Cogan, Senior Manager, Theatre Development, BMG, said, "We are thrilled to be working with the remarkable Children's Theatre Company on the musical adaption of The First Rule of Punk. It's an inspired combination of narrative and song and will provide a unique opportunity for our publishing catalog to reach new audiences and new generations."

Navigating middle-school is a struggle. Between queen bees, dress codes, and a disapproving parent, finding your place and a way to express yourself is difficult. Can twelve-year-old, punk-loving Malú find a way to make herself a place at a new school while staying true to herself despite the pressure to conform?

"It's such an honor to have The First Rule of Punk adapted into a musical by the nation's leading multi-generational theatre, Children's Theatre Company and to have BMG and their catalog of iconic artists involved with the production," stated author Celia C. Pérez. "I am excited for this story to reach new audiences and look forward to seeing it come to life on a stage."

The First Rule of Punk has found a home on many best book lists including those by NPR, The New York Public Library, Seattle Public Library, and Chicago Public Library. The book has also won numerous awards and honors, notably; the 2018 Pura Belpré Author Honor; the 2018 Great Lakes, Great Reads Award; the 2018 Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award; and the 2018 Boston Globe-Horn Book Fiction and Poetry Honor.

"It's a thrill to bring The First Rule of Punk and the punk music of BMG artists together to create a live stage musical," stated Miriam Weisfeld, CTC's Director of Artistic Development. "Celia C. Pérez's book is a playful, witty, and intersectional portrait of the new girl at school who learns to embrace her outsider status, be herself, and rock out."

"I love this book and its themes of navigating cultural collisions, familial tensions, and the struggle to find one's own voice," stated CTC's Artistic Director Peter C. Brosius. "It is a book that leaps off the page with its energy, wit, and truth. I cannot wait to partner with BMG and bring this book to theatrical life with the drive and power of the punk music world."

Children's Theatre Company (CTC) is the nation's largest and most acclaimed theatre for young people and serves a multigenerational audience. It creates theatre experiences that educate, challenge, and inspire for more than 295,000 people annually. CTC is the only theatre focused on young audiences to win the coveted Tony Award for regional theatre and is the only theatre in Minnesota to receive three Tony nominations (for its production of A Year with Frog and Toad). CTC is committed to creating world-class productions at the highest level and to developing new works, more than 200 to date, dramatically changing the canon of work for young audiences.

CTC's engagement and learning programs annually serve more than 93,000 young people and their communities through Theatre Arts Training, student matinees, Neighborhood Bridges, Kidcentricity, and early childhood arts education programs. ACT One is CTC's comprehensive platform for access, diversity, and inclusion in our audiences, programs, staff, and board that strives to ensure the theatre is a home for all people, all families, reflective of our community. childrenstheatre.org

Celia C. Pérez is the award-winning author of The First Rule of Punk, published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers. Her second book for young readers, Strange Birds, will be published by Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers in September 2019. She is originally from Miami, Florida and lives in Chicago with her family where, in addition to writing books about lovable weirdos and outsiders, she works as a community college librarian.

BMG is the world's fourth biggest music company and the first new global player in the recordings business in decades. BMG's 15 offices across 12 core music markets now represent over 3m songs and recordings, including the catalogues of Chrysalis, Bug, Virgin, Mute, Sanctuary, Primary Wave and Talpa Music, as well as literally thousands of artists and songwriters including Aerosmith, Richard Marx, Public Enemy, Tears for Fears, Avril Lavigne, and Alice in Chains, among many others. Bringing together the traditionally separate businesses of music publishing and recordings under one roof, BMG is increasingly building a multimedia presence in music related films (Sundance Film Festival selections Joan Jett's Bad Reputation and David Crosby: Remember My Name), television projects (PBS Soundstage, Live From Daryl's House), and books (Johnny Cash at Folsom & San Quentin, Wanda Jackson: Every Night is Saturday Night, For The Sake of Heaviness: The History of Metal Blade Records).