Be Our Guest with Michael Gordon Shapiro and Aimee Reid (Gideon and the Blundersnorp)

Michael Gordon Shapiro Los Angeles-based Michael Gordon Shapiro composes for film, games, television, theater, and the concert hall. Classically trained, he delivers a romantic sound that blends the acoustic orchestra, evocative soloists, and organic-sounding electronics. Michael’s background spans both film/television scoring and the more technical discipline of music for games. He entered the game world as audio director of Boston-based Zoesis Studios, where he composed live orchestral scores and designed the studio’s adaptive music system.  Michael is also an active composer for musical theatre; his children’s show Super Sidekick: The Musical is published by Samuel French / Concord Theatricals and has been performed in front of young audiences throughout the United States, including Off-Broadway in 2012. His family musicals Gideon and the Blundersnorp and  The Bully Problem have won numerous awards and nominations, including (for “Gideon”) Best Musical at the 2021 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Aimee Reid Aimee is a Toledo-area native, graduating from Bowling Green State University with a bachelor of arts degree in theatre for youth and puppetry. Post-bachelor’s, she was admitted to Arizona State University, where she earned a Master’s of Fine Arts degree in Theatre for Youth and a master’s certification in nonprofit leadership and management. She teaches and directs for the Ensemble and the Young Theatre Professionals, and she leads the Creative and Brave Company (a community-based theatre program for teens, at CTW). She received the 2018 Ann Elgood Youth Theatre Director of the Year award with the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. Her favorite part about working at Children’s Theatre Workshop is seeing young people fall in love with theatre and helping them make the stories their own. It is her belief that when young people tell stories, amazing things can happen. Gideon and the Blundersnorp Gideon is a stablehand who yearns to join the Royal Cavaliers. Alanna is a young viscountess who feels trapped in the system of hereditary succession. The two have more in common than they think. Thrown together by chance, Gideon and Alanna must contend with bandits, a treacherous forest, and a giant monster that just wants to eat everyone. Gideon and the Blundersnorp combines witty characters, pulse-pounding excitement, and a rousing cinematic/medieval-folk score. Underlying the fun is a positive message: aspiration is fueled by personal character, not social class.