The Beatrix Potter Drive-In Theatre Experience!

Lara Carling (Performer/Puppeteer) is an actor, singer and puppeteer who has devised and performed in Chicago Children’s Theatre’s productions of these Beatrix Potter stories since their beginning, six years ago. Other CCT credits include: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, Red Kite Treasure Adventure, Red Kite Brown Box, and Red Kite Green Mountain. She has performed for  Lookingglass Theatre, Piven Theatre Workshop, Chicago Musical Theatre Festival, Redmoon,  Rhinofest, and as a singer at The Green Mill, Tonic Room, and Martyrs’. Lara trained at Drama Centre London and the Boris Schukin Institute in Moscow.

Sonia Goldberg (Performer/Puppeteer/Live Musician) is so excited to be working with CCT again after performing in Wake Up, Brother Bear! Other recent Chicago credits include …And I Am Not Afraid (Prop Thtr), The Man Who Was Thursday (Lifeline Theatre) and The Snow Queen (Filament Theatre). Sonia is a company member with PlayMakers Laboratory (formerly Barrel of Monkeys) and an educator/administrator with Compass Creative Dramatics. She is a Chicago native and a graduate of Butler University in Indianapolis. She holds a certificate in classical acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) and has studied with the Moscow Art Theatre School.

Kay Kron (Performer/Puppeteer) is thrilled Beatrix Potter & Friends is back (against the odds!) this year. Ms. Kron is a theatre maker, teaching artist and administrator with a special place in her heart for puppets. Off the stage, she serves as CCT’s Associate Director of Development. Previous to becoming an administrator, she spent several years as an actor with credits at The House, Lookingglass, Haven, First Floor, Caffeine, Rough House, and Redmoon. In 2019, she traveled to Dijon, France to co-present a case study at ENCATC (European Network on Cultural Management and Policy) in collaboration with DePaul University’s Diane Claussen and Alan Salzenstein examining DCASE’s 2019 Year of Chicago Theatre initiative. The findings of her 2017 study detailing gender parity across theatre professions in Chicago, released in conjunction with Collaboraction’s Gender Breakdown, were featured in the Chicago Reader and American Theatre Magazine. She holds a BFA in Acting and an Masters of Nonprofit Management from DePaul University.

Ray Rehberg (Musician/Composer) is humbled and thankful that not even 2020 can stop the joyous yearly tradition of Beatrix Potter stories at CCT!  Additional CCT credits include Frederick, The Year I Didn’t Go to School, and Frog and Toad – and as a composer: My Wonderful Birthday Suit. Recent credits include the Jeff-nominated Verböten (Jason’s Dad) at the House Theatre of Chicago, and The Philosophy of Cavemen (Winston) and Philoctetes (Philoctetes) with the Wirelings digital theatre ensemble, of which he is a member.  Next up, for young audiences: Journeying Jack with the Wirelings. In addition: continuing his on-camera career in Los Angeles, California!

Will Bishop (Co-Creator/Director) is Chicago Children’s Theatre’s Director of Production, where he has overseen the creation of over 20 shows. Additionally, he has designed scenery, props, costumes and/or puppets for Frederick (with Michael Shannon), Doll Face Has a Party! (with Brian Selznick), The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, The World Inside Me (Chicago, Miami, and New Victory Theatre, NYC), X Marks the Spot! (Chicago and Sarasota FL), My Wonderful Birthday Suit, Red Kite Green Mountain (Flynn Center, Burlington VT), Red Kite Treasure Adventure, and numerous collaborations with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He is the director and a co-creator of The Beatrix Potter Holiday Tea Party, which has played as CCT’s holiday tradition for the past four years, has toured to dozens of schools and libraries around Chicago, recently played in the Ninth Annual China Children’s Theatre Festival, in Beijing and Jinan, and is now being adapted into a hybrid film/live drive-in movie experience.

Grace Needlman (Puppet Designer) is a museum worker and theater artist preoccupied with questions about collective imagination and belonging. Grace is the Manager of Youth and Family Programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and formerly worked as a teaching artist at Chicago Children’s Theatre, After School Matters, Urban Gateways, the Smart Museum, Arts + Public Life, and Redmoon. Grace’s mask and puppet designs have appeared in productions at Chicago Children’s Theatre, Links Hall, the Actor’s Gymnasium, Rough House, and Redmoon. Grace graduated with an MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths University of London, and a BA in fine art from Yale University.