Alliance Theatre Summer Camp students present the world premiere musical, What’s Eating Katie?

Alliance Theatre Summer Camp students present the world premiere musical, What’s Eating Katie? - the story of a 13 year old girl struggling with an eating disorder

ATLANTA, May 30, 2012 — High school students in the Alliance Theatre Summer Drama Camp will be tackling the serious issues of eating disorders when they perform the world premiere musical What’s Eating Katie? on June 15-16.  Composed and directed by Alliance artist Bryan Mercer with book by Dina Zeckhausen, What’s Eating Katie? tells the story of a 13 year old girl dealing with an eating disorder and the family and friends who love her.  This powerful theatrical experience will be developed and performed by teens and is intended for teens.

Many students auditioned for the camp, but only fifteen students were chosen for the two week performance training experience.  Those chosen participated in a weekend intensive in May, and will begin camp on Monday, June 4.  During the intensive, Jo-Jo Steine was chosen to play the role of Katie.  She said of the opportunity, “The true joy of acting comes from turning a hard topic, something unpleasant, into something beautiful with the power to make people stop and think. So yes, this summer I’m playing a teenager who starves herself, hates herself, makes herself sick. And I couldn’t ask for a better way to spend a summer than this important challenge.”

“I’m deeply proud that our acting students will be honing their performance skills in a camp that serves a much greater good than simply talent development,” said Alliance Theatre Director of Educational Programming, Christopher Moses.  “While this program will certainly make all the students better actors, better singers, and better performers, it ultimately teaches them about the power of theatre to effect change by shedding light on a topic that demands attention.”

This one of a kind summer camp is produced in partnership with EDIN, the Eating Disorders Information Network, and with Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center.  A portion of all ticket sales goes to support EDIN.    For more information on EDIN, visit www.myedin.org.