Carnegie Boys and Girls Club gets visit from Charlie Brown characters, actors

Carnegie-area thespians gave some of the community’s youngest an opportunity to go behind the scenes with a recent production of “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.”

Actors from Stage 62 visited the Boys and Girls Club in Carnegie to teach the children songs, dance moves and choreography.

Stage 62 also offered discounted tickets to employees and Boys and Girls Club families to the show, and accepted donations from audience members to benefit the Boys and Girls Club, said Amy Bonner, communications chair for Stage 62.

Michael VanNewkirk, producer for “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” said he reached out to the Boys and Girls Club to offer a partnership. That included space in the program to advertise the Boys and Girls Club. Club members also were invited to Stage 62’s final dress rehearsal and a received a buy-one, get-one-free promotion for the club for the entire run of the show.

During the April 24 visit, Charlie Brown, Sally Brown and Linus Von Pelt — played by Joe Kosha, McKenzie Heidenreich and Chris Russell — sang to children, signed and read Peanuts books for club members, and taught students iconic Charlie Brown dance moves.

“Charlie Brown is a great ‘introductory to theater’ type of show for young audiences,” VanNewkirk said. “It felt like the perfect outreach to engage young, new audiences.”

VanNewkirk hopes to grow the partnership with the Boys and Girls Club.