Mo Willems Is The Kennedy Center's First Education Artist-in-Residence
The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is known as one of the nation’s preeminent institutions providing arts for all ages. This year with the addition of a grand new community-centered space – The Reach – that artistic outreach is complete. But there is more! The Kennedy Center now has its first Education Artist-in-Residence – Mo Willems – someone whose work pushes creative boundaries and makes it fun.
Mo’s a multi-talented Emmy Award–winning writer (Sesame Street) and New York Times best-selling author and illustrator (Don’t Let a Pigeon Drive the Bus and others). His rock opera, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, premiered at the Seattle Children's Theater in 2018.
This is not Mo’s first venture with the Kennedy Center. He wrote the script and lyrics for Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical and Elephant and Piggie's WE ARE IN A PLAY! Both plays commissioned by and debuted at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and consistently run in productions around the nation.
As the Education Artist-in-Residence, Mo will develop and present multidisciplinary programming and performances across the Kennedy Center including theater, jazz, dance, classical music, comedy, digital experience, and outreach over the next two years. Audiences will play, participate, and create with cross-genre experiences and world premieres seen nowhere else.
Highlights in Mo’s residency include the world premiere of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (The Musical); the world premiere orchestral rendition of Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs (a Symphonic Spectacular) with music composed by Kennedy Center Artistic Advisor Ben Folds for the National Symphony Orchestra; Mo Willems & the Storytime All-Stars present: Don’t Let the Pigeon Do Storytime!, a comedic celebration of reading; an interactive Jazz Doodle Jam! in partnership with Jazz Programming and Jason Moran; and more.