"Blue's Clues" Co-Creator Traci Paige Johnson Teams Up With Feature Film producer Caroline Baron To Launch Brand New Interactive Children's Media Company "yummico"

Kidscreen's children's digital entertainment news column, iKids, is reporting the news in the following article that Traci Paige Johnson, a co-creator of Nickelodeon Preschool's (Nick Jr.'s) groundbreaking 1990's series "Blue's Clues" and co-creator of PBS' preschool series "Super Why!", which currently airs on Nick Jr. UK and Ireland, has teamed up with the feature film producer Caroline Baron, of "Capote" fame, to launch a brand new interactive children's media company called "yummico", which will develop interactive content for preschoolers and toddlers. The company will launch digital games, interactive shows, apps and eBooks, as well as traditional narrative animation, print books and other consumer products. First out of the gates for yummico is a new musical animated interactive series called "Yummiloo" (pictured below), which is designed to help kids develop food identification skills and healthy eating habits. The property features the Yum Yums, a band of creatures that lives in a world made entirely of food. The first Yummiloo app, "Yummiloo Rainbow Power", was produced in collaboration with Night & Day Studios and will launch March 2013 at the iTunes store. The company is also rolling out additional content shortly, including "The Adventures of Ash & Ollie", which will reinforce lifestyle habits like bedtime rituals, screen time, potty training and good manners. Other interactive programming in development includes "The App Police", a buddy comedy featuring two bumbling policemen that takes place inside the world of tablet devices, and "Edison the Invention Detective", which follows a young girl inventor who loves to solve mysteries:

Blue’s Clues co-creator launches kids interactive media venture


Blue’s Clues co-creator Traci Paige Johnson and feature film producer Caroline Baron, of Capote fame, have launched a new interactive children’s media company called yummico.

yummico is focused on developing interactive content for preschoolers and toddlers. The company will launch digital games, interactive shows, apps and eBooks, as well as traditional narrative animation, print books and other consumer products.

First out of the gates for yummico is a new musical animated interactive series called Yummiloo (pictured), which is designed to help kids develop food identification skills and healthy eating habits. The property features the Yum Yums, a band of creatures that lives in a world made entirely of food.

The first Yummiloo app, Yummiloo Rainbow Power, was produced in collaboration with Night & Day Studios and will launch next month at the iTunes store.

The company is also rolling out additional content shortly, including The Adventures of Ash & Ollie, which will reinforce lifestyle habits like bedtime rituals, screen time, potty training and good manners. Other interactive programming in development includes The App Police, a buddy comedy featuring two bumbling policemen that takes place inside the world of tablet devices, and Edison the Invention Detective, which follows a young girl inventor who loves to solve mysteries.

Johnson is a co-creator of groundbreaking 1990s Nickelodeon series Blue’s Clues and co-creator of PBS preschool series Super Why!, while Baron has produced several feature films, including Capote and Monsoon Wedding. She is currently executive producer of upcoming big-screen comedy Admission, starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd. Baron is also the founder of A-Line Pictures with her husband and producing partner Anthony Weintraub.

Tags: A-Line Pictures, apps, Blue's Clues, Caroline Baron, digital media, Traci Paige Johnson, yummico, Yummiloo, Yummiloo Rainbow Power

"Bucket And Skinner's Epic Adventures" Actress Simone Missick To Star In San Francisco's TheatreWorks' Regional Production Of "The Mountaintop"

The theatrical news website BroadwayWorld.com San Francisco is reporting that the North American actress Simone Missick, who played a reporter in the episode of the Nickelodeon original comedy series "Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures" called "Epic Babysitters", will be portraying the character "Camae" in TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, presentation of the regional premiere of "The Mountaintop" by Katori Hall. Winner of the 2010 Olivier Award for Best New Play, this London/Broadway hit re-imagines the events on the night before the assassination of civil rights leader DR. Martin Luther King, Jr. Directed by Anthony J. Haney, THE MOUNTAINTOP plays at TheatreWorks at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto, March 6 - March 31, 2013 (press opening March 9), with added performances April 3, 4, 6, and 7. The April 4 performance will include a special tribute to Dr. King on the 45th anniversary of his death:

Photo Flash: First Look at TheatreWorks' THE MOUNTAINTOP

In a timely production that coincides with the 45th anniversary of DR. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, presents the regional premiere of THE MOUNTAINTOP by Katori Hall. Winner of the 2010 Olivier Award for Best New Play, this London/Broadway hit re-imagines the events on the night before the assassination of civil rights leader DR. Martin Luther King, Jr. Directed by Anthony J. Haney, THE MOUNTAINTOP plays at TheatreWorks at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto, March 6 - March 31, 2013 (press opening March 9), with added performances April 3, 4, 6, and 7. The April 4 performance will include a special tribute to Dr. King on the 45th anniversary of his death.

BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

THE MOUNTAINTOP journeys beyond realism to explore the last evening of DR. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life. After delivering one of his most memorable speeches - a passionate oration supporting the Memphis sanitation workers' strike in which he declares, "I have been to the Mountaintop" - an exhausted Dr. King retires to Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel while a storm rages outside. Camae, an effervescent and beautiful motel maid, arrives with Dr. King's coffee, but it soon becomes clear that she is not what she appears to be. When she reveals some surprising news, King is forced to confront his life, his legacy, and the future of his people.

For the regional premiere of this poignant drama, TheatreWorks welcomes AdrIan Roberts as "Rev. DR. Martin Luther King, Jr." and Simone Missick as "Camae." Bay Area audiences may recognize Roberts from his roles in productions at Magic Theatre (Tough Titty) and San Francisco Playhouse (First Person Shooter). Off-Broadway credits include "Ken" in Playboy of the West Indies (Lincoln Center Theater), with regional appearances as "Charles" in As You Like It, "Arthur" in OO BLA DEE, "Antenor" in Troilus and Cressida, and "Fedotik" in The Three Sisters, (all at Oregon Shakespeare Festival), "Commander Osembenga" in Ruined (La Jolla Playhouse), "Gower" in Henry V (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), "Lucien P. Smith" in The Boys Next Door (Santa Clarita Repertory Theatre), and roles at Sacramento Theatre Company, Capital Stage, B Street Theater, Willows Theatre Company, Dorset Theatre Festival, Huntington Theatre Company, and Dallas Theater Center. Roberts' television credits include co-starring roles on Trauma, Criminal Minds, Scrubs, and Brothers & Sisters, with film appearances in Death Ride, Out for Blood, and Close to Home.

Missick, who was most recently featured in the acclaimed In the Red and Brown Water at Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, has appeared in a variety of roles at The Lost Studio, White Buffalo Theatre Company, Whitefire Theatre, Two Roads Theater, Plowshares Theatre Company, St. Clair Shores Players, and Eastpointe Theatre Company. She has guest-starred in Nickelodeon's television series Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventure, as well as the Hallmark Channel Original Movie A Taste of Romance. Other film credits include The Road to Sundance, Look Again, and Douglass U. A graduate of the British American Drama Academy, Missick is currently writing and producing her own series of one act plays as well as a web TV series.

The TheatreWorks production of THE MOUNTAINTOP includes scenic design by Eric Sinkkonen, costume design by Jill Bowers, and lighting and video design by Jason H. Thompson, and sound design by Gregory Robinson.

Playwright Katori Hall's The Mountaintop (2010 Olivier Award for Best New Play) received its Broadway debut in 2011 at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre starring Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson. Hall's other works include Hurt Village (2011 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Signature Theatre), Children of Killers (National Theatre, UK and Castillo Theatre, NYC), Hoodoo Love (Cherry Lane Theatre), Remembrance (Women's Project), Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, WHADDABLOODCLOT!!! (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Our Lady of Kibeho, and Pussy Valley. Her awards include the Lark Play Development Center Playwrights of New York (PONY) Fellowship, the Arena Stage American Voices New Play Residency, The Kate NeAl Kinley Memorial Fellowship, two Lecomte du Nouy Prizes from Lincoln Center, the Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Playwriting Award. Hall's journalism has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Essence, The Commercial Appeal, and UK's The Guardian, and includes contributing reporting for Newsweek. Currently a member of the Residency Five at Signature Theatre Company in New York City, Hall is an alumna of the Lark Playwrights' Workshop, where she developed The Mountaintop, and a graduate of Columbia University, the A.R.T. at Harvard University, and the Juilliard School.

Multiple award-winning actor and director Anthony J. Haney returns to TheatreWorks to direct THE MOUNTAINTOP. In addition to serving as the company's Associate Artistic Director in the 1980s, Haney has directed TheatreWorks Productions of Intimate Apparel and Crowns, as well as a commercial revival of Crowns at San Francisco's Marines Memorial Theatre. He also directed Snatched, a musical adaptation of the horror film classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, and musical tributes to Ben Vereen, Della Reese and Ruby Dee at The Nate Holden Theater in Los Angeles. His numerous acting credits with TheatreWorks include the post-Broadway premiere of Grey Gardens, "Roosevelt Hicks" in Radio Golf, "John Merrick" in The Elephant Man, "Troy Maxson" in Fences, "Levee" in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and "Benedick" in Much Ado About Nothing. Other onstage roles include "Sam" in Master Harold...and the Boys at Rubicon Theatre Company and "King Billy" in Daisy in the Dreamtime at [Inside] the Ford, and starring roles in acclaimed extended runs of Central Avenue and Oyamo's I Am a Man (which he also directed) for The Fountain Theatre. He has also appeared at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Magic Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, and the Edinburgh Festival, as well as with the San Francisco Mime Troupe (National Tour).

With some 100,000 patrons per year, TheatreWorks has captured a national reputation for artistic innovation and integrity, often presenting Bay Area theatregoers with their first look at acclaimed musicals, comedies, and dramas, directed by award-winning local and guest directors, and performed by professional actors cast locally and from across the country. A home for artists developing new works, it was at TheatreWorks that Memphis, the 2010 Tony Award-winning musical that played on Broadway for three years before embarking on its current national tour, was first workshopped and received its world premiere.
For tickets ($23-$73) and information the public may call (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org. Note: Contains mature language.

Nickelodeon Brazil Teams Up With Conspiracao For New Telenovela Titled "Dani Who?"; To Premiere In March 2014

The entertainment industry news website Variety is reporting in the following article that Viacom Networks Brasil, the Brazilian branch of MTV Networks Latin America, has teamed up with the Brazilian production company Conspiracao to produce 75 hour-long episodes of a brand new Portuguese-language telenovela called "Dani Who?", a company designed for 7-14 year olds that will premiere on Nickelodeon Brazil (also known as Nickelodeon Brasil) in March 2014:

Latin American content still struggling to crack U.S.

But RioContentMarket wraps with slew of local deals

RIO DE JANEIRO -- The TV biz is booming in Brazil, but indie shows still face obstacles breaking into the U.S. main-stream TV and theatrical markets, according to local industryites and government officials at the third RioContentMarket, Latin America's main indie producers meeting, which closed Thursday with a flurry of local deals.
The distribution of Brazilian TV shows is usually limited to Latino nets or VOD platforms, while pics make it to the art-house circuit, VOD and homevideo.

"The U.S. market is formatted to be self-sufficient. The studios make their shows in-house or co-produce with U.S. indie companies," said Daniela Vieira, content manager of the Brazilian versions of Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Toonscast and one of 3,000 participants from around the world at the event.

Vieira added Turner has acquired a number of Brazilian animated series and will co-produce a few others with local partners, designed for the local market. These series, she said, have international quality and global themes, and Turner intends to air them on its channels across Latin America, but not in the U.S.

One show that has broken through in the U.S. is Sao Paulo-based 44 Toons' "Newbie and the Disasternauts," which will be the first 100% Brazilian cartoon series to air on a main-stream net in the U.S.

Sci-fi space comedy follows the young commander of an interstellar ship and his crew.

Created and directed by 44 Toons' Ale McHaddo, the English-language series consists of 39 episodes of seven minutes and will bow April 1 on Starz Kids & Family.

New York-based distrib Branscome Intl. and 44 Toons are looking for a co-production partner for the series' second season.

But nothing indicates this is a trend. "It is very difficult for any indie production to make it to the U.S. market, especially if it is a foreign production," said Branscome topper Catherine Branscome.

But while U.S. biz remains elusive, there was good news at the Rio confab where the local TV biz is booming, boosted by new regulations that impose primetime quotas for Brazilian programming on pay TV channels. This is opening up the local TV production sector.

An example of this is Viacom's pact with Conspiracao to produce 75 hourlong episodes of Portuguese-language telenovela "Dani Who?" Designed for 7-14 year olds, comedy will bow March 2014 on the local version of Nickelodeon.

Brazil's Grifa and Gaul's FL Concepts will co-produce 20 episodes of "Bel Etoile," hosted by local chef Bel Coelho, for French/German net Arte to air in 2014. The $20 million-budget skein will see Coelho travel Brazil looking for local dishes to prepare.

Meanwhile, the Spirit of Football, an international non-governmental organization that promotes social empowerment via soccer, pacted with DGT Filmes to produce content to screen in workshops with kids in Brazilian schools, among other venues.

The Spirit of Football promotes this initiative every four years in the country hosting FIFA's Soccer World Cup, which will take place in Brazil in 2014. DGT's business director Daniel Melloni said the deal amounts to $5 million.

The RioContentMarket was created and organized by the Brazilian Independent TV Producers Assn. (ABPI-TV).

It has grown exponentially in its three years, from an attendance of 800 for its first edition in 2011 to 3,000 this year.

Some 208 local production companies participated in the event, with large delegations from the U.K. (35), France (20) and Germany (10). Rio hosted 16 keynote speeches, 93 panels and 820 business meets.