Interview with Michelle Lewis and Charlton Petters

Kindergarten is an important step in any child’s life. For many, it is the first time they leave home and their parents, it is the time they learn their alphabet, and it is the first time they experience making friends.

That’s why the inspiration behind Disney’s newly released collection comes from its formative years, Kindergarten: Musical TheaterIt tells the story of 5-year-old Bertie and her new friends at school. “We were all kids once,” said Michelle Lewis, the show’s creator and executive producer. advertising billboard.

Her series creator and executive producer Charlton Petters agrees. “We’re all parents. Real kids are a lot more interesting than most people. We’re telling really interesting stories about people we know very well, and we raised a lot of them.

Lewis and Petters are long-time co-creators who have worked as producers, songwriters and musicians for decades. Louis is a two-time Emmy Award winner and has composed for Cher, Amy Grant, Little Mix and more. She has also worked on many children’s animated shows, including Dr. Mike Stuffins, vampire and Bubble Guppies.

Petters has been a touring guitarist, producer and co-writer with Tears for Fears since 2000, and has also collaborated with Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan and Selena Go Selena Gomez and other artists. However, Kindergarten: Musical Theater This is his first time working on a television show. “It’s a lot better,” he said of working in television. “In the darkest days of pop songwriting, [Lewis and I] Our mission during that period was to write songs that sounded like they were about something, but deliberately avoided actually being about something. So, I think we were a little burned in the chase.

“TV and movies seemed more interesting, so we started getting into that,” he noted, before adding, “We’re trying to market some shows. Kindergarten Appears as a back pocket pitch. We thought it was clever and funny. When we went out and talked to people, people responded to it.

However, the music was hardly put on hold Kindergarten: Musical Theateras the name suggests. Lewis calls the collection a “love letter to music” and its unifying essence. “There is a song called ‘I Want to Go Home’ in the show,” she said as an example. “It’s about being in school, and they miss home, and they miss their dog, and so on. What seems like a small moment for little kids is actually a big moment, big enough for them to sing. I Hopefully this show will make kids feel seen and heard and celebrated and express those things, those fears and anxieties and joys and all those things, easily through music.

Petters concluded: “Why do songs make us cry? Because we know ourselves. It resonates. I think we just want to do the same thing with kids. We want them to know themselves, see themselves, and see that everything goes well , everything is fine.

Kindergarten: Musical Theater Available to watch on Disney Jr. and Disney+. Check out a clip from the song “First Day,” exclusively via advertising billboard the following.