The entire cast performs the “Kick It Up!” number in the musical “If You Could Dance in My Shoes,” written by Diane Beckstead of St. Luke's Lutheran School.

Putting on a good show and doing a good deed at the same time was the aim of Diane Beckstead and the students of her theater arts camp at St. Luke's Lutheran School, 330 Hannahstown Road, Cabot.

Their Aug. 13 performance of Beckstead's musical, “If You Could Dance in My Shoes,” provided both song and dance and support for Soles4Souls, a Nashville nonprofit that provides shoes to those in need around the world.

“If You Could Dance in My Shoes” is the latest musical that Beckstead has written for her company, Musicals For Change.

She writes and sells children's musicals to encourage children to be change-makers, educate and inspire audiences and support organizations such as Soles4Souls, Cribs for Kids, Operation Christmas Child and Heifer Project International.

Beckstead has been the musical educator at St. Luke's Lutheran School for 15 years and the vocal musical director for musicals at Knoch High School for the past six years.

A lack of children's musicals prompted her to take a stab at writing them herself, she said.

“I started writing in 2008 and started the company shortly after that,” she said.

Beckstead says she writes the music and sends it to Joe Milton, a music producer in Dallas, who makes two recordings.

“We coordinate back and forth,” she said. “He records it. The vocals are done by his daughter.”

One recording is the singing parts, and the other recording covers the instruments, which can range from guitar, bass and drums to a rock number to trombone and strings to a typical Broadway show tune.The package she sells to schools and churches include the sheet music, Morton's recordings of instruments and singing, and a director's guide to staging the work.She sells the musicals to schools and churches to perform, but she saw a chance for the musicals to be more than a night's entertainment.Beckstead saw an opportunity to raise support for worthy causes.That was the case in her most recent musical, “If You Could Dance in My Shoes.”“With my musicals, I look to partner with a charity, raising awareness and raising funds for worthy causes,” she said. “St. Luke's has a very strong ethos regarding service. Service is very important to our school.”The story of “If You Could Dance in My Shoes” mirrors the mission of the Nashville charity.Of the 10% of the fee Beckstead receives when a church or school performs “If You Could Dance in My Shoes,” usually $250 goes to Soles4Souls.Beckstead explained the musical follows Penny, a disadvantaged girl who is living in a car with her father.“She's made to feel worthless by other students until she decorates her shoes,” she said.Her self-esteem restored, Penny then falls afoul of Tasha, the daughter of a shoe store owner who steals Penny and her friends' decorated shoes to fulfill a sales quota.The shoeless students then decide to stage an old-fashioned sock hop, and the musical ends with the dance and the comeuppance of the villain.

Beckstead said the cast of 10 arts camp attendees had two weeks to rehearse and present the musical.Rachel Blose, 13, the daughter of Sarah and Brian Blose of Sarver, said the cast rehearsed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day, but it never seemed like drudgery.“It was really good fun,” said Rachel. “Honestly, the time went by so fast. It took a lot of work, but it was fun.“They rehearsed with masks on for two weeks. It was not enjoyable, but they didn't complain,” Beckstead said.“It's really amazing that they did it and they did it well,” she said.Rachel, who played Tasha, the daughter of the shoe store owner, thought the performance went pretty well.“She did a good job of writing it,” she said.Jacob Messenger, 13, the son of Nicole and Rich Messenger of Saxonburg, who played Finn, agreed the compressed rehearsal time was intense, but worth it.“It was really challenging to do in two weeks, but it was fun,” said Messenger.The performance also gave Beckstead a chance to fine tune the book and music.The hourlong show has 10 songs. She worked with choreographer Tiffany Seitz of Saxonburg to bring “Shoes” dances to reality.Seitz said she was impressed by the cast's dancing.“It was such a great experience. These kids pulled together a show in two weeks,” said Seitz, who teaches dance and choreography at Natalie's School of Champions in Saxonburg.

“This was my first time working with Diane,” Seitz said. “I would recommend that theater camp to anyone.”Beckstead said Seitz worked with the cast really hard and came up with choreography for the sock-hop scene.“It went really well. It's a validation that the show does work,” Beckstead said, on a musical level that is.It also works to teach empathy through doing good works.Beckstead still has some work to do before “If You Could Dance in My Shoes” will be ready for sale.She needs to finish the director's guide that will go with the music and the book, tweak the script a bit and try to perfect the musical score.It's a lot of work, but in this case it really is for a good cause.And, she added, because there just aren't enough good children's musicals to go around.“The reason I write is the quality of children's musicals isn't there,” she said. She said there aren't many good musicals written for the 8- to 14-year-old audience.And helping a good cause is an added inducement.“Better stories and better songs for a better world,” she said.

Rachel Blose, of Sarver, right, played Tasha, the daughter of a shoe store owner and the antagonist of Penny in “If You Could Dance in My Shoes.”

Maggie Watson of Freeport played Penny and Jacob Messenger of Saxonburg played Finn in a scene from “If You Could Dance in My Shoes,” a musical that benefits the Soles4Souls charity.