Children's Theatre Company heads to the really big screen

The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis is celebrating its 50th anniversary on the really big screen.

The theater will screen the movie of its Broadway hit "A Year with Frog and Toad" on the Target Field Jumbotron.

The screening is scheduled for Aug. 9. The event will be free and open to the public.

"Our goal is to make sure everyone joins in this celebration, because this is a Minnesota celebration of something that was born here and thrived here and has an impact across the country," said Artistic Director Peter Brosius.

The theater's 50th season begins in September. It features five new shows, including a stage adaptation of the film "Akeelah and the Bee," a new adaptation of "The Jungle Book," "The Snowy Day," based on the work of Ezra Jack Keats, and a musical based on the popular "Diary of a Wimpky Kid" series of books.

Brosius said it would have been easy just to do a season of greatest hits, but that doesn't fit with the company's history of producing internationally acclaimed work.

"We challenged ourselves to make a season of new work, of premieres that would advance the field, that would excite our audience, that would be surprising and new," Brosius said.