Roald Dahls James and the Giant Peach Creative

Stage Director

Scott Mead

Scott Mead is a theater artist/drama specialist with a MFA in Youth Theater from Eastern Michigan University and a Bachelor of Arts in Education from Wayne State College. He currently teaches and directs drama at Omaha Central High School. Previous to this position he worked as the drama director at Omaha Burke High School. Scott has created drama curriculum for 9-12th grade students in 3 levels of drama classes and two levels of stagecraft classes. Scott serves as the Troupe Director for the International Thespian Society (ITS) CHS Troupe 7833. He has also worked as a free-lance theater artist with The Rose Theater in Omaha, Omaha Community Playhouse, Lookinglass Theater in Chicago, Reading in Motion in Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, Mosaic Youth Theater of Detroit and The Duluth Playhouse in Duluth Minnesota. In addition, Mr. Mead has taught K-12 theater arts education in Palatine, IL School District 15, Skokie, IL School District, and Oak Lawn-Hometown Middle School in IL.

Music Director/Tech Director

T. Adam Goos

A native of Wakefield, Adam was in the inaugural productions of the Little Red Hen when it was founded in the early 90’s. It was his involvement at the Little Red Hen that sparked an interest in pursuing a career in the fine and performing arts. Adam holds an MFA from the Theatre Conservatory of the Chicago College of the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and a BS of Theater and Music Performance from Wayne State College. Adam worked as an actor in Chicago for several years that included performances with the Court Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, White Horse Theater Company, and Emerald City Theater Company among others. He also worked as an arts educator, specializing in arts and academic integration. While performing, Adam serves as the Managing Director for the Little Red Hen Theatre.

Original Creative Team

Music and Lyrics

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, known together as Pasek and Paul, are an American songwriting duo and composing team for musical theater, films, and television. Their works include A Christmas Story, Dogfight, Edges, Dear Evan Hansen, and James and the Giant Peach. Their original songs have been featured on NBC's Smash and in the films La La Land, for which they won both the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Song for the song "City of Stars", and The Greatest Showman. Their work on original musical Dear Evan Hansen has received widespread critical acclaim and earned them the Tony Award for Best Original Score.

Both artists are graduates of the University of Michigan and winners of the American Theatre Wing's 2007 Jonathan Larson Award, which honors achievement by composers, lyricists and librettists.

Book

Timothy Allen McDonald is an award-winning playwright (Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka, The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley, Jim Henson's Emmet Otter, Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach) adaptor of over 65 musicals (highlights include Guys and Dolls JR., Getting to Know...The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz YPE, and Les Miserables School Edition). McDonald is also an accomplished director (Dear Edwina produced by multi-Tony award winner Daryl Roth, and The Phantom Tollbooth at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts) and a leading authority on musical theater education.

Original Story

Roald Dahl has been referred to as "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century". His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the British Book Awards' Children's Author of the Year in 1990. In 2008, The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Dahl's short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, macabre, often darkly comic mood, featuring villainous adult enemies of the child characters. His books champion the kindhearted and feature an underlying warm sentiment. His works for children include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The BFG, The Twits, and George's Marvelous Medicine.