Gateway welcomes three new artists to our performance roster this year and nine new programs. Here is a short introduction to each of them.

Puppeteer Flora Shepherd, new to Pittsburgh by way of Louisiana has created an engaging and comic version of The Three Little Pigs, for early childhood audiences.

Musician Betsy Lawrence, accompanied by the talented Jon Burgh on keyboards, brings a new program for K-8 with Women in Song, performing tunes by chart-topping female/singer songwriters.

Fuzzy Boundary Productions (puppeteer Cheryl Capezzuti and theatre artist Kellee Van Aken) presents their original musical Stuff, with music by Douglas Levine, for K-3. Friends Flip and Lou learn how to share their space, explore the joy of making things and the value of recycling.

There are two new musical programs by Liberty Brass Quintet, All American (K-8), which salutes America’s rich musical tradition, and Magical Musical History Tour (6-12), which covers the development of Western music.

The popular group Cellofourte, who has been reincarnated as three cellos and a drummer with the new moniker Cello Fury, created a new program called Sonic Evolution which plays with the dynamic relationship between percussion and strings and the boundaries between classical and rock.

For the early childhood set, singer Rebecca Covert and guitarist Dan Burgun present The Little Red Hen with Rebecca playing the overworked bird and Dan chiming in as all of her lazy friends.

Storyteller Antonio Rocha, who comes to us all the way from Maine, brings Crossroads, amazing stories from around the world for K-8.

Shakespeare-in-the-Schools presents the premiere of Darwin and the Kid for 7-12 grades. A struggling student finds his room invaded by multiple video incarnations of scientist Charles Darwin. This production is a unique collaboration between University of Pittsburgh artists and Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment and Technology Center.