Strap in alongside a gaggle of delightful dogs as they drive, swim, play baseball and make their way to the big dog party — all in a lively blend of English and Spanish — in Chicago Children’s Theatre’s world premiere bilingual musical, Go Dog Go! • Ve Perro ¡Ve!
Like a pop-up book that comes to life, Go Dog Go! • Ve Perro ¡Ve! is a heart-warming spectacle of music, color, language and delight, appealing to all ages. Performances are March 15-May 18 at Chicago Children’s Theatre as the company’s 19th season finale. Press openings are Sunday, March 16 at 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.
“Go, Dog. Go!,” written and illustrated by P. D. Eastman, has been an essential and beloved children’s book since 1961. Millions of toddlers (and their parents) have fallen in love with its menagerie of highly mobile dogs who drive cars, boats and motorbikes in pursuit of work and play. The action culminates in a big dog party, while introducing basic early education concepts along the way such as color and relative position ("The blue dog is in. The red dog is out.”)
In 2003, playwrights Allison Gregory and Steven Dietz adapted Eastman’s book into one of the most widely produced plays for young audiences in the U.S. Now, in collaboration with Chicago Children’s Theatre, they have transformed that play into a bilingual (English/Spanish) musical for all ages.
“P.D. Eastman’s iconic book has been reaching audiences in multiple languages for years,” said Gregory and Dietz. “This project was born of our desire to see two of those languages braided together onstage, side-by-side, in a show that seeks to welcome, instruct, surprise and delight.”
Dietz is also traveling to Chicago to direct this first production of Go Dog Go! • Ve Perro ¡Ve! Original compositions are by Michael Koerner with Spanish translations by Ana Maria Campoy. Music director is Rob Witmer, who will also play accordion for the first half of the run.
Chicago Children’s Theatre’s world premiere Go Dog Go! • Ve Perro ¡Ve! features (from left) Melanie Brezill as Hattie, Tony Carter as Red Dog, Jean Carlos Claudio as MC Dog, Jalbelly Guzmán as Green Dog, Maria Clara Ospina as Blue Dog and Shawn Pfautsch as Yellow Dog. Nathan Hunter plays accordian later in the run.
As always, Chicago Children’s Theatre’s has cast Go Dog Go! • Ve Perro ¡Ve! with some of the city’s top professional actors, including CCT favorites Melanie Brezill (Last Stop on Market Street, My Wonderful Birthday Suit, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane) as Hattie, Tony Carter (Mesmerized: A Ben Franklin Science & History Mystery) as Red Dog, Maria Clara Ospina (Carmela Full of Wishes) as Blue Dog, and Shawn Pfautsch (Mesmerized: A Ben Franklin Science & History Mystery, A Year with Frog and Toad, Leo Lionni’s Frederick, among others) as Yellow Dog. Jean Carlos Claudio (MC Dog), Jalbelly Guzmán (Green Dog) and Nathan Hunter (accordion player) are all making their CCT debuts.
Behind the scenes, Go Dog Go! • Ve Perro ¡Ve! again showcases the work of top Chicago professional artists and designers: Lonnae Hickman (props designer), Molly May (assistant props designer), Jazmin Aurora Medina (costume designer), Jason Lynch (lighting designer), Karen Wallace (associate lighting designer), Harper Crewse (production stage manager), and Anastar Alvarez and Gianni Cacagno (assistant stage managers).
Performances of Go Dog Go! • Ve Perro ¡Ve! are March 15-May 18: Saturdays and Sundays at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Press openings are Sunday, March 16 at 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Exceptions: No 11:30 a.m. show Saturday, March 15. Showtimes Saturday, April 19 are 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. No 9:30 a.m. shows Sunday, April 20 and Sunday, May 4. Tickets are $42.25, including fees, and are on sale at chicagochildrenstheatre.org. Purchase early, because many performances will sell out.
Go Dog Go! • Ve Perro ¡Ve! runs approximately 60 minutes and is recommended for all ages. Call CCT Guest Services, (312) 374-8835, or email boxoffice@chicagochildrenstheatre.org to learn about student matinees and discounts for schools, playgroups, birthday parties and scouting groups.
Chicago Children’s Theatre is a “no shushing” theater. It’s centrally located at 100 S. Racine, at Monroe, in the former 12th District Chicago Police Station, minutes from I-90 and I-290, downtown and Ashland Avenue. Free, onsite parking is available on the south side of the theater. Free street parking can be found nearby on weekends, or try the Impark parking lot, 1301 W. Madison St.
Access performances for Go Dog Go! • Ve Perro ¡Ve!
Sensory Friendly
Saturday, April 12 and Saturday, May 3 at 9:30 a.m.
Audio Description and Touch Tour
Saturday, April 19 at 2 p.m.
*Tickets must be purchased two weeks prior to performance
ASL and Open Captions
Saturday, May 10 at 11:30 a.m.
For more, go to chicagochildrenstheatre.org/access_performances or email access@chicagochildrenstheatre.org.
For general information, visit chicagochildrenstheatre.org, follow the company on Instagram and Facebook, and subscribe to its YouTube channel, CCTv: Virtual Theatre and Learning from Chicago Children’s Theatre.
Creative team biographies
Steven Dietz’s (playwright and director) plays for young audiences include Honus and Me and Jackie and Me, both adapted from Dan Gutman, and Go, Dog. Go!, adapted from P.D. Eastman, co-written with Allison Gregory. All three received their Chicago premieres at Chicago Children’s Theatre. Add his long list of adult plays, and Dietz remains one of the “20 Most Produced Playwrights in America” (American Theatre Magazine). Chicago productions include Lonely Planet and How a Boy Falls (Northlight), On Clover Road and Yankee Tavern (American Blues), Bloomsday and Fiction (Remy Bumppo), Paragon Springs (TimeLine) and Mad Beat Hip & Gone (Promethean). He has directed productions of new work at Seattle Repertory Theatre, ACT Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Denver Center Theatre Company, North Coast Repertory Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, among many others. He co-adapted his play Shooting Star into the movie What Happens Later, starring Meg Ryan and David Duchovny. Awards include the Steinberg New Play Citation for Bloomsday; the Kennedy Center New American Plays Award for both Fiction and Still Live with Iris; and the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Play for Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure. Recent premieres include new adaptations of Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton, and Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie. Dietz previously taught in the MFA Playwriting/Directing program at UT/Austin, and continues to teach master classes across the country. Born and raised in Denver, Dietz and his wife, playwright Allison Gregory, divide their time between Austin and Seattle.
Allison Gregory’s (playwright) plays have been produced nationally and internationally by professional theatres, academic stages, and non-traditional spaces. Her plays for young audiences include Go Dog. Go! and its new bilingual sequel, Go Dog Go! • Ve Perro ¡Ve!, adapted from the P.D. Eastman book and co-written with Steven Dietz, Red Riding Hood, Peter and the Wolf, Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter, adapted from the book by Astrid Lindgren, and four plays adapted from the beloved Junie B. Jones book series by Barbara Park. Gregory has been recognized by TYA USA as “One of the 10 Most Produced TYA Playwrights” in America. Her other works include Not Medea and Wild Horses, which were O’Neill Finalists and received multiple Rolling World Premieres through NNPN; and Motherland, a reimagining of Brecht’s Mother Courage for a diverse world. She has received commissions and support from Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Kennedy Center, South Coast Repertory, Indiana Repertory Theatre, The Playwright’s Center, the Skirball-Kenis Foundation, The New Harmony Project and The National New Play Network (NNPN).
Michael Koerner (composer) is a veteran composer, music director and musician who lives in Minneapolis. Since 1983, he composed and musical directed over 20 productions at The Children's Theatre Company. In a 25-year association with Theatre de la Jeune Lune, he has composed the music and musical directed 25 productions including Cyrano, Yang Zen Froggs, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Kitchen, Circus, and many others.
Ana María Campoy (translator) is a Chicana theater artist and advocate based in Seattle. Theatre work includes Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Key City Public Theatre, Seattle Public Theatre, Book-It Repertory Theatre, Pork Filled Productions, Village Theatre, The 5th Avenue Theatre, New Mexico Shakespeare Festival, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s FUERTE. She served as Associate Artist with Seattle Shakespeare Company (2021-2023) and ArtsWest (2020-2021). One of her most cherished acting roles includes Catherine in a bilingual adaptation of David Auburn’s Proof, which she also produced and translated alongside director Arlene Martínez-Vásquez. She has toured nationally in Living Voices’s solo show, La Causa. She developed multiple bilingual scripts for Seattle Shakespeare’s touring productions such as Romeo y Julieta, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, and Hamlet, the latter two she also directed. A recent project was directing Alvaro Saar Rios’s Quetzali and the Comic Book Queen vs. the Alebrije of Darkness: Live in the School Cafeteria for the Lexington Children's Theatre as part of the TYPA BIPOC Superhero Project. Up next, Campoy will direct Carmelita: A Vindication for the Unwritten, Or How to Write Yourself Back Into History at Key City Public Theatre in April 2025.
Rob Witmer (music director, accordian player for first half of the run) is a Seattle-based composer, musician, and sound designer. He has composed music and created sound designs for many theatrical productions at Seattle Rep, Seattle Opera, ACT Theatre, Village Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company and Seattle Children’s Theatre, along with Spectrum Dance Theatre and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.
About Chicago Children’s Theatre
“The Chicago theater scene is legendarily vibrant, so naturally a number of companies tailor productions to younger audiences. The cream of the crop is Chicago Children’s Theatre.” – Chicago Tribune
Chicago Children’s Theatre, 100 S. Racine St. in Chicago’s West Loop, is Chicago’s destination for the best plays, musicals, classes and performing arts camps for young audiences, students and families.
The company was founded in 2005 with a big idea: Chicago is the greatest theater city in the world, and it deserves a great children’s theater. Now approaching its 20th anniversary, Chicago Children’s Theatre is the city’s largest professional theater company devoted exclusively to children and young families.
In 2017, following 11 years of itinerancy, Chicago Children’s Theatre opened its forever home in Chicago’s West Loop community. Formerly the 12th District Chicago Police Station, the building was repurposed into a LEED Gold-certified, mixed-use performing arts, education and community engagement facility. For children, parents, caregivers and teachers, CCT is now a convenient, welcoming community hub, centrally located in the city, with free, onsite parking.
Chicago Children’s Theatre has established a national reputation for the production of first-rate children’s theater with professional writing, performing, and directorial talent and high-quality design and production expertise. In 2019, the company won the National TYA Artistic Innovation Award from Theatre for Young Audiences/USA. Chicago Children’s Theatre has also garnered six NEA Art Works grants, and in 2017, was the first theater for young audiences to win a National Theatre Award from the American Theatre Wing, creators of the Tony Awards.
In tandem with its live productions, Chicago Children’s Theatre offers a full slate of Access services for patrons with disabilities, including ASL interpretation, open captioning, touch tours and sensory friendly performances. Chicago Children’s Theatre provides live theater experiences, classes and camps for children with autism and other special needs via its Red Kite Project. CCT also provides thousands of free and reduced-price tickets to weekday student matinees to under-resourced schools in partnership with Chicago Public Schools.
In addition to shows, CCT offers a full, year-round roster of performing arts education programs for ages 0 to 14. Visit chicagochildrenstheatre.org/family-programs for information on classes, workshops, winter, spring break and “school’s out” camps, and summer camps. Due to popular demand, in addition to its home in the West Loop, CCT camps and classes have expanded to new locations including Menomonee Club Drucker Center in Lincoln Park.
Chicago Children’s Theatre is supported by Goldman Sachs Gives, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, The Ralla Klepak Foundation for Education in the Performing Arts, Polk Bros Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, The MacArthur Fund for Culture, Equity and the Arts, Bayless Family Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Camp Out for Kids, Crown Family Philanthropies, PwC, Rivers Gives, US Bank, Thomabravo, Illinois Arts Council Agency, City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), Arctos Foundation, the Leland Family, Nancy and Erwin Aulis, the Gaito Family, Meridith and Ron Kaminski, the Knowles/ Wortendyke Family, Michael and Barbara Kraetsch, the Melendes Family, the Neveux Family, Erin and Jason, Ben, Bici and David Pritzker, Abigail and Jason Sussman, Susan M. Venturi Fund in memory of James and Roslyn Marks and the Waller Family.
Chicago Children’s Theatre is led by Co-Founders, Artistic Director Jacqueline Russell and Board Chair Todd Leland, with Board President Armando Chacon.
For more, visit chicagochildrenstheatre.org.