Making Friends with "Ivy + Bean"

Meet the Playwright

Scott Elmegreen

Scott Elmegreen is a playwright, composer, lyricist, sound designer and novelist whose work has premiered on Broadway, television and in film, as well as off-Broadway, regionally and internationally. His other musical work for young audiences includes The Magic School Bus, Live! The Climate Challenge (music and lyrics; national tour, Bay Area Children’s Theatre, Oregon Children’s Theatre) and Awesome Allie: First Kid Astronaut (book; Vital Theatre). Other notable projects include the Emmy Award-nominated Colin Quinn Long Story Short, directed by Jerry Seinfield (original compositions; Broadway, national tour, HBO special); COLLEGE The Musical (New York Theatre Musical Theatre Festival Award for Excellence, Richard Rodgers Award Finalist); and Vote For Me: A Musical Debate (NYMFal). Scott is also a published author of young adult fiction and a graduate of Princeton University.

Learn more about Elmegreen and his work at www.scottelmegreen.com.

Best friends can come from the most unlikely places.  Ivy and Bean are neighbors on Pancake Court, a cool cul de sac where big kids and little kids play together.  But they couldn’t be more different. Bean is brash and bold and she always gets into trouble.  Ivy is nice and quiet and she likes to read.

Even though Ivy and Bean think they have nothing in common, the two girls come together to play a trick on Bean’s big sister, Nancy, when their parents let her babysit for the first time. Bossy Nancy is the perfect target for Ivy—who is a witch-in-training—to practice her new spell.

Ivy and Bean join forces—and become best friends along the way. They learn invaluable lessons about the importance of friendship and family—and even try to break a world record!
For this zany new musical adaptation of Annie Barrows’ beloved Ivy + Bean book series, playwright Scott Elmegreen adapted stories from the first few books in the series.  Find out more about the Ivy + Bean books.

Director Marya Mazor has created a fun, exciting mix of stage magic to bring the story of Ivy and Bean to life at South Coast Repertory.

Ivy + Bean set design model by Set Designer Anne Sheffield

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Mazor has assembled a wonderful cast of actors/singers for Ivy + Bean including Melody Butiu, Dylan DoVale, Emily Eiden, William Martinez, Elia Saldana and Sammi Smith.  Her stellar artistic/design team includes Alby Potts, musical director; Anne Sheffield, sets; Angela Calin, costumes; Brian Gale, lights; Jeff Polunas, sound.

South Coast Repertory is thrilled to share the magic and music of Ivy + Bean with our audiences, Nov. 8-24.  We hope you’ll join us for this fun, frolicking story of friendship—Ivy and Bean-style.

Meet the cast or dig deeper on the website

Meet the Author Annie Barrows

Ivy + Bean author Annie Barrows started writing books when she was nine. After studying medieval history at UC Berkeley, she became an editor, and then she went back to school to study writing.

After writing a number of books for adults, Barrows wrote “Ivy + Bean,” her first book for kids in 2006. There are now 10 books in the series. “Ivy + Bean” garnered numerous awards, including Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, an ALA Notable Children’s Book, and a People magazine’s “Summer’s Hottest Reads” selection. Born in San Diego, Barrows now lives in Northern California with her husband and two daughters, Clio and Esme. One of her daughters is like Ivy and the other is like Bean. They both make a lot of potions. Find out more about Barrows at www.anniebarrows.com

Barrows Talking About Ivy + Bean

The first book in the "Ivy + Bean" series

“One of the big problems of being a kid is that your parents often try to make you play with people you don’t really like. My parents were forever trying to get me to like the kids of their friends. These kids were often weird. I didn’t want to play with them. It was a problem.

I remembered that when I was writing the first “Ivy + Bean.” Ivy and Bean are very different. Bean is loud and wild and goofy. She loves to be involved in games and poke her nose in other people’s business. Ivy is quiet and full of ideas. She spends most of her time learning how to be a witch. Each girl thinks the other one is weird. Each girl thinks she could never be friends with the other. Especially because their parents keep nagging them about it.

But sometimes opposites can become the best of friends because they’re opposites. For example, people who like to talk need people who like to listen. And people with great ideas need people who can put those ideas into action. For Ivy and Bean, their differences mean that they have more fun together than they could ever have separately. It also means that, together, they do more wacky things than any one kid could ever dream up. The Ivy and Bean books are about the adventures—and disasters—created by this unlikely team. And since their motto seems to be ‘Why not?’ there’s every reason to believe that their capers and catastrophes will continue for quite a while.”

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