During lockdown, theatre companies all over the world had to shut down for extended periods of time in order to stay in line with safety protocols. After canceling their 2020 season, the Spartanburg Youth Theatre (SYT) came up with a solution to keep the community entertained and bring their past productions into the classrooms by creating a new program called Storybook Live! 

StoryBook Live! is a virtual series designed to support the classroom curriculum with a theatrical component. A narrator reads the book aloud while the Spartanburg Youth Theatre actors engage the virtual audiences. Currently, there are three StoryBooks available, including The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Suess, The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and Stephanie’s Ponytail by Robert Munsch. More stories such as The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett and Gary Rubinstein and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka will be added to the collection in late Spring. 

Abbie Loscuito (12) has been a member of the SYT program throughout her high school career and is now performing in StoryBook Live!

“StoryBook Live! rehearsals are a lot different in the way we rehearse because it is shot in short intervals as compared to performing an entire show for a live audience. We also block out the entire show when we perform live, and when rehearsing for StoryBook Live!, we block certain snippets,” Loscuito said.

SYT director Adam Sanders describes the production as very different from live theatre.

“This is different because we are truly just recreating the book and bringing it to life. We don’t change any of the words, and go page by page with the book. Performing a show on stage is usually an adaptation of a book with a script that has bee written by a professional who we license from,” Sanders said.

Schools can make free reservations due to the large amount of funding from the program’s sponsors. According to spartanburgyouththeatre.com, once the performance is recorded, a copy of the play of choice is sent to schools or customers along with an educational enrichment guide that corresponds to the StoryBook and is linked to South Carolina education standards.  

Each StoryBook experience is not live-streamed but created and filmed through the 2021 season. Projected availability for each production is listed on the SYT website. When the productions are available, they are emailed along with the enrichment guide to instructors and households across the upstate region.  

This program allows children to watch and learn some of their favorite stories even though theaters are still closed. The actors have also enjoyed this fun project and time to continue their craft.