Broadway On Tour History, Philosophy, Mission Statement, and General Palaver ... 

BOT (say bee-oh-tee, not "bot"), was founded by Daniel Halkyard in October, 1988 in Placentia, California, to provide a place for kids who wanted to perform on stage to learn in a professional manner. Broadway on Tour's first performance was "A Christmas on Broadway" in December of 1988 after three months of rehearsal. 

With many elementary and intermediate schools strapped for cash, there often was no other place for kids to learn and display their talent in the community. The theater's motto: "Children Bringing Theatre to Children" - also points out the other, equally important mission of BOT. We provide affordable live theater performances to young audiences as their introduction to a world of entertainment outside of TV, movies, and other "non-organic" storytelling.
 
To provide a place for families to watch live performances, we offer shows on weekends year 'round in a facility that caters to the young audience.  We have a long term agreement with the historic Ebell Theater located in a family-friendly location, and produce one and two hour musical matinee performances featuring characters and stories recognizable by kids from ages three to ten. Our shows are performed by kids typically aged from eight to eighteen, with auditions open to the public.
 
BOT is an all volunteer organization, like "Little League", only for young actors. The only way we can put on our shows is with help from the parents of the kids in the cast. We have a volunteer board of directors to handle publicity, production details, and the continuing operations, but still need parent volunteers for every show. There are no special skills required, everyone has something they can contribute  - from painting to program design - to just returning phone calls. Jobs are divided to try and keep it fun for everyone and avoid stress and parent "burn out".
 
To be added to our mailing list to receive audition notices and show information, or just to volunteer to work behind the scenes, click Here.

For more information about what it's like to audition for a part and be in our shows, please visit our Audition page.

General Philosophy for Our Theater

 We cast no more than the number of parts called for in the script in our shows. All parts are important, and actors normally play the same character in all performances for the run of the show. Some of the full two hour shows may have a few double cast roles. Not all actors are called for all rehearsals, only when their character is required. 

We charge a participation fee, currently about $140 (depending on the show), to cover insurance, costumes, and a cast T-shirt. There are two additional $100 work deposits for pre-show and run-of-show work guarantees. The $100 deposits are refunded for labor spent by parents helping to produce sets, costumes, programs, or publicity before the show opens and working as ushers during the run of the show. The deposits are per family, not per child.

We normally don't require any other fund raising activity or ticket sale quotas. Scholarships are available for cases where fees would cause economic hardship. To make this volunteer organization work, we require parents to contribute about twenty hours of labor per family prior to the show opening. This is unskilled labor and can be building or painting sets, working on props or costumes, program design, or whatever they can contribute. After the show opens, parents take turns on weekends as ushers.

We provide a professional director, musical director, and choreographer for each show. We properly license the rights for all our shows from the appropriate theatrical agencies. Not everyone does.

We have been operating in Orange County for 16 years and have built co-operative relationships with many of the other youth theaters in the area. We are a registered non-profit corporation and operate on ticket sales and participation fees with occasional small grants and donations. Any profit from previous shows is used to finance future shows and occasionally buy new or improved theatrical equipment. The Board of Directors are unpaid volunteers, the artistic and technical staff are paid per show as independent contractors.