Making Books Sing, even louder

New York City-- Making Books Sing is a non profit organization that combines musical theatre, books, and hands on activities to engage students of all ages in a unique learning experience.

The cast of 20 teaching artists travel all over New York City to have in-depth theatre-making experiences. Each year the performers attend more than 70 schools.

"The artists turn books into musicals with the students." said Lorraine Ross-Hall, business manager, of Making Books Sing. "The students learn to create musicals, character and conflict."

Recently, the theatre obtained $50,000 from the Arts and American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009. The act funds the nonprofit arts industry. The plans expedites critical funds for the national, regional, state, and local levels for projects that focus on the preservation of jobs in the arts, which is exactly what Making Books Sing is all about.


Making Books Sing started in 1996 as the family theatre and education program of the Tony Award-winning Vineyard Theatre. After five years the Vineyard Theatre's Founder, Barbara Zinn Krieger, left her post to establish Making Books Sing as an independent organization. In that time they've been working hard to expand their company, Ross-Hall believes the stimulus money has greatly helped.


Before the stimulus package Ross-Hall states, "We were operating on a lot fewer places."


With the money the company has been able to hire three new teaching artists, and an artistic associate.

"It has been very critical to have an artistic associate who can get more venues to play in." said Ross-Hall.


Making Books Sing also has been able to continue their services in 15 schools all with residency programs. Also they are able to bring more students in to the productions from as far as Staten Island.

Among the schools served, the Adventure Center in the Bronx that caters to homeschooled kids, ages 4-ll, Goldie Maple Academy in Queens, for grades first, second and third and Project Reach Youth in Brooklyn for grades Pre-K and parents. 

Without the stimulus Ross-Hall states that, "None of this would have happened."


According to its website that Making Books Sing is working to expand the reach of the program through new artistic initiatives, financial stability, increased touring and licensing, and expanded educational programs that will reach more children especially those at-risk due to homelessness, poverty, language barriers and special needs.

"The package really helped up the quality and quantity of the program. It has made it a real professional production" said Ross-Hall.

In 14 years Making Books Sing, has completed 13 professional productions of musicals to 365 public, charter, and private schools. They have also been able to reach over 80,000 school and family audience members across New York City and have served as the theater education program in more than 57 New York City public and charter schools across all five boroughs.


As the program continues to grow and expand to further cities in New York, Ross-Hall states, "The students learn a lot of different tools from making the musicals, tools they can use to transfer in the future to other kinds of studies." And for this non-profit, hopefully their future will be a long one.