For ages 4-6
Monday-Friday, 9:00am-12:00pm at CCT, 100 S Racine Ave
$275 | 1 week camp
Register by Jan 5 for a 15% discount!
Bow-wow, it’s time to unleash your inner star! In this half-day drama camp, we’ll explore a dog’s world through story-based drama, music, and movement. In fun-filled creative drama activities, you’ll play with puppies, howl with wolves, and boogie with poodles, all while developing social emotional skills and imaginative thinking. On the final day of camp, you’ll share your tail-wagging adventures with family and friends in a mini performance!
Masks will be strongly recommended during this camp. For more information on precautions we are taking during the pandemic, please see our Education Policies & FAQs.
For rising grades 1-4
Monday-Friday, 9:30am-4:00pm at CCT, 100 S Racine Ave
Free before-care from 8:30-9:30am, free after-care from 4:00-5:30pm
$1100 | 2 week camp
Register by Jan 5 for a 15% discount!
All aboard, matey! Inspired by classic pirate legends, you will learn the basics of acting, character creation, song writing, dance, collaborative story development, scene and prop construction. The whole crew will work together with professional theatre artists to create an original sea-worthy saga. On the last day of camp, you will perform your pirate tale for families, friends, and scallywags in CCT’s Pritzker Family Studio Theatre.
Masks will be strongly recommended during this camp. For more information on precautions we are taking during the pandemic, please see our Education Policies & FAQs.
All aboard to celebrate 20 years of adventure, courage, and curiosity with CCT! Enjoy mingling with CCT board, staff, artists, friends, and supporters over wine, beer, appetizers, and gorgeous Chicago views. Hosted by board members Brian (and Kate) Crouch, thank you!
Columbia Yacht Club (111 N. Lake Shore Dr.)
For ages 5-8
Thursdays, 4:30-5:30pm
at The Menomonee Club - Lincoln Park, 1535 N Dayton St.
$354.00 | Register by 8/1 for a 15% discount!
Are you the next Broadway star? Or is singing in the shower more your speed? Either way, Triple Threat will have you leveling up your acting and vocal technique. Explore character work through some of Broadway’s most marvelous musicals and embrace your own dreams of the stage! On the last day of class, you will perform some favorite songs, dances, and scenes for family and friends.
For ages 9-13
Thursdays, 5:30-6:30pm
at The Menomonee Club - Lincoln Park, 1535 N Dayton St.
$354.00 | Register by 8/1 for a 15% discount!
Are you the next Broadway star? Or is singing in the shower more your speed? Either way, Triple Threat will have you leveling up your acting and vocal technique. Explore character work through some of Broadway’s most marvelous musicals and embrace your own dreams of the stage! On the last day of class, you will perform some favorite songs, dances, and scenes for family and friends.
For grades 1-5
9:30am-4:00pm at CCT, 100 S Racine Ave
Free before care from 8:30-9:30am and free after care from 4:00-5:30pm
$100 per camp day
During Chicago Public School non-attendance days for students, Chicago Children’s Theatre offers high-energy day camps for children in grades 1-5. Throughout the day, students will rotate through a series of unique arts and theatre classes, dig deeper into their interests by making selections between curated arts activities, and forge new friendships along the way. Past camps have included: acting, improv, songwriting, clowning, beatboxing, puppet design, yoga, prop and costume creation, and much more. Each day of camp is entirely different from the last!
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These productions are suitable for all ages – toddlers, children, and teens, but best suited for certain ages as indicated. However, you know your kids best! We trust your discretion while attending Chicago Children’s Theatre shows.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions or concerns to communications@chicagochildrenstheatre.org.
Special Events (separate from subscription)
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While other mice are gathering food for the winter, Frederick daydreams the summer away. But when fall weather comes, it is Frederick who has stored up something special for the long cold winter in a celebration of the idea that there is a place for all of us in this world. Originally a world premiere in CCT's 10th birthday season, this charming musical based on Leo Lionni’s classic, much-loved Caldecott Award-winning book features a book by Suzanne Maynard Miller and a spirited folk and rock blues music score by Sarah Durkee and Paul Jacobs, performed live, on-stage by a talented cast of six actor-musicians.
Produced by special arrangement with DRAMATIC PUBLISHING, Woodstock, IL
Leo Lionni’s Frederick premiered at Chicago Children’s Theatre in Oct. 2014
Frederick, © 1967 by Leo Lionni, © renewed 1995 by Leo Lion, used with permission from the Lionni family.
For ages 12-36 months with a caregiver
No class October 13
Mondays, 9:30-10:15am
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$145 | 5 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Get dancing and grooving with your little one at Bubble Jams! This fun-filled class for tiny musicians-in-the-making and their grown-ups features singing, dancing, and a variety of instruments to try out. So come jam out to your favorite classic and new songs, show off your best dance moves, and play in a dazzling stream of bubbles!
For grades K-2
No class October 13, November 24
Mondays, 4:30-5:30pm
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$290 | 10 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Step into the spotlight and let your creativity shine! In this music-filled drama class, you’ll explore the magic of musical storytelling and your own unique and colorful voice. Through lively songs, playful theatre games, and imaginative movement, you will build skills in:
- Performing confidently in front of others
- Using body and voice to create a character
- Singing as an ensemble in unison, in harmony, and in round
- Playing a variety of musical instruments
…and more! The class will end with a joyful performance in your classroom to celebrate your colorful chorus with family and friends.
CCT offers free after-school pick-up from Skinner West Elementary School Main Branch and Intercultural Montessori.
For Pre-K & Kindergarten, 4+ years
No class November 11, November 25
Tuesdays, 4:00-4:45pm
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$290 | 10 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Calling all cute critters and creepy crawlies to the stage! Through multi-sensory creative drama and movement activities, you’ll hop with bunnies, burrow with mice, and find your special role in the ecosystem. Through reading stories together and bringing them to life, you’ll gain skills in:
- Performing confidently in front of others
- Using body and voice to play a character
- Identifying and portraying emotions
- Making friends
- Listening and teamwork
…And more! On the final day of class, we will share our favorite parts of Animal Town with family and friends!
For grades 1-2
No class November 11, November 25
Tuesdays, 5:00-6:00pm
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$290 | 10 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Love the spotlight but also want to explore what happens behind the curtain? In this class, you’ll get to do it all! Combining acting, music, and design (just like in CCT’s popular summer camps), you’ll get to make and perform a show from scratch by creating the story, writing the songs, and crafting the props and costumes. You’ll build skills in:
- Performing confidently in front of others
- Using body and voice to create a character
- Building and telling a great story
- Designing and creating theatrical props and scenery
- Listening and collaboration
…and more! The last day of class will culminate in the opening (and closing) of your original short play, performed right in your classroom!
CCT offers free after-school pick-up from Skinner West Elementary School and Intercultural Montessori.
Join us this Fall and explore our wide selection of unique weekly classes for theatre novices, accomplished performers, and everyone in-between. Led by experienced and enthusiastic teaching artists, our classes help students gain confidence, develop their artistic voices, and build lasting friendships. Financial Aid is available!
Extra benefits for Skinner West students include free after-school pick-up and pre-class homework help offered in our lobby!
For grades 3-5
No class November 29
Saturdays, 3:00-4:00pm
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$290 | 10 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Calling all kids who are ready to find their power through dance! In Dance Lab, you’ll find your rhythm as you explore the essentials of dance through movement, music, and choreography exercises. Then, take it to the next level by creating an original dance routine that celebrates your unique style! Class will include skill building in:
- Beginning musical theatre dance steps
- Body awareness and alignment
- Warm-up techniques
- Learning and performing ensemble choreography
…and more! In the final class, you’ll perform a mini dance showcase for friends and family right in your classroom!
For grades 6-8
No class November 29
Saturdays, 4:00-5:30pm
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$435 | 10 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
From vocal warm-ups to scene study techniques, get ready to add some tools to your actor’s toolbox in this advanced acting class! Sharpen your acting skills by rehearsing monologues and scenes, guided and coached by a professional theatre artist. Elements of the actor’s toolbox that you’ll explore include:
- Character physicality and body language
- Vocal technique and projection
- Using text analysis to enhance scene work
- Being an active scene partner
…and more! The last day of class will culminate in a showcase of original scenes and monologues right in your classroom.
For ages 1-4 with a caregiver
Sundays, 9:00-9:45am
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$145 | 5 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Grab your little one and join us in the backyard, where we'll bring our favorite stories to life through creative drama, music, and movement! From colorful gardens to cute caterpillars, there is so much to explore in our backyards. In this creative play class for our youngest learners, we’ll act out our favorite parts of beloved nature-centered stories, explore early music concepts, and throw a backyard bash right in our classroom!
For grades K-2
No class November 29
Sundays, 9:15-10:15am
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$290 | 10 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Dragons, fairies, and queens, oh my! Through theatre games and dramatic play activities, you’ll battle beasts, befriend forest creatures, and add your own twists and turns to classic stories. Class will include skill building in:
- Performing confidently in front of others
- Using body and voice to create a character
- Creating stories with a beginning, middle, and end
- Imagination development
- Listening and collaboration
…and more! On the last day of class, you’ll perform your original fairy tale for family and friends in your classroom.
For grades 3-5
No class November 30
Sundays, 10:00-11:30am
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$435 | 10 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Are you the next Broadway star? Or is singing in the shower more your speed? Either way, Triple Threat will have you leveling up your acting and vocal technique. You’ll explore the ways musical theatre can tell a story as you practice:
- Vocal technique and warm-ups
- Expressing character through voice and body
- Learning and performing ensemble choreography
- Developing your own unique acting and singing style
…and more! On the last day of class, you will perform some favorite songs for family and friends in your classroom.
For ages 4-7 with a caregiver
Sundays, 10:30-11:15am
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$145 | 5 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Designed for youth on the autism spectrum with a participating grown-up, this highly-interactive creative drama class will get the whole family moving and imagining! Bond with your little one through creative drama, music, and multisensory activities, while supporting your child’s motor development, communication skills, self-confidence, and blossoming creative spirit.
For ages 10-15
No class November 29
Sundays, 11:30am - 12:30pm
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$290 | 10 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Designed for youth on the autism spectrum, this introductory acting class will encourage you to take the stage as a wide range of characters! Step into someone else’s shoes as you develop skills in:
- Performing confidently in front of others
- Using body, gesture, and dialogue to create a new character
- Communicating and listening as an ensemble
- Making imaginative choices
…all while having a ton of fun! In the final class, you’ll show off some of your character creations to family and friends in a mini-performance right in your classroom.
For grades 3-5
No class November 26
Wednesdays, 4:30-5:30pm
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$290 | 10 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Blur the line between stage and screen with multimedia! In this class, you will sharpen your storytelling and acting skills while exploring the possibilities of green screen technology. Create your story, props, and costumes, and you’re ready to film your own mini movies! As you create, you will practice:
- Storyboarding as a building block of story creation
- Using green screens and basic film technology
- Set design basics
- Character creation
- Collaboration
…and more. The last day of class will culminate in the opening (and closing) of your original mini movie!
CCT offers free after-school pick-up from Skinner West Elementary School and Intercultural Montessori.
For grades K-2
No class November 26
Wednesdays, 4:30-5:30pm
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$290 | 10 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Get ready to shake out the nerves and take the stage as a confident and collaborative performer! In this improvisational theatre class, you’ll learn to express your loud, funny, and wacky inner monologue that will leave your classmates laughing their socks off. Through improv games, ensemble work, and laugh-out-loud unscripted storytelling, you’ll build skills in:
- Agreeing and adding onto ideas with “Yes, And…”
- Active listening and collaboration
- Performing in short-form improv games
- Developing imagination
- Making bold choices
….and more. On the last day of class, friends and family will join for a mini improv show right in your classroom!
CCT offers free after-school pick-up from Skinner West Elementary School Main Branch and Intercultural Montessori.
Chicago Children’s Theatre took to the stage in 2005-6 with a big idea: Chicago is the greatest theater city in the world, and it deserves a great children’s theater. Now, in 2025-26, we find ourselves reflecting on that idea, the years of progress, and the potential of the future. In doing so, let us also take a moment to celebrate in the present.
As evidenced by:
- Over one-million community members served.
- 24 World Premieres.
- 8 NEA Awards, recognizing theatrical productions of the highest standards of excellence.
- Financial assistance & scholarships to over a quarter million CPS students.
- Breaking ground with the city's very first theatrical programming for young people on the autism spectrum, the internationally-heralded Red Kite Project.
- An industry leader in ACCESS programs for youth with all types of special needs.
- The 2017 opening of our permanent home in the West Loop, a former police station reimagined into a mixed use performing arts, education, and community center.
- And countless other achievements!
For ages 1-4 with a caregiver
No class November 30
Sundays, 9:00-9:45am
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$145 | 5 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Grab your little one and dive into a vast ocean of stories! Through multi-sensory drama activities, you’ll sing like a mermaid, splash with dolphins, and sail into the deep blue sea. In this creative play class for our youngest learners, we’ll act out our favorite parts of beloved sea-centered stories, explore early music concepts, and throw a splash bash right in our classroom!
For ages 4-7 with a caregiver
No class November 30
Sundays, 10:30-11:15am
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$145 | 5 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Designed for youth on the autism spectrum with a participating grown-up, this highly-interactive creative drama class will get the whole family moving and imagining! Bond with your little one through creative drama, music, and multisensory activities, while supporting your child’s motor development, communication skills, self-confidence, and blossoming creative spirit.
For ages 12-36 months with a caregiver
No class November 24
Mondays, 9:30-10:15am
at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S Racine Ave
$145 | 5 sessions
Register by 8/1/25 for a 15% discount!
Get dancing and grooving with your little one at Bubble Jams! This fun-filled class for tiny musicians-in-the-making and their grown-ups features singing, dancing, and a variety of instruments to try out. So come jam out to your favorite classic and new songs, show off your best dance moves, and play in a dazzling stream of bubbles!
Four adorable Beatrix Potter favorites come to life in this mesmerizing, interactive trunk and puppet show, complete with original music. Storytellers weave Potter’s classic narration with gentle interactive moments, recruiting young watchers to join the adventure. After the show, head to the lobby to play with the puppets, take pictures with the cast, and join fellow Chicago families for a communal holiday party featuring a festive spread of holiday treats! Our stories this year will include The Tale of Peter Rabbit and a brand new tale!
CCT SPECIAL EVENT (not part of a subscription)
In February 2026, Chicago Children’s Theatre will present its first-ever Chicago Sensory Theatre Summit, celebrating its 20-year commitment to access and marking its role as a national leader in sensory theater.
Theater artists, educators and audiences from Chicago and around the U.S. will gather for this all-access sensory theater Chicago “happening” including industry workshops and presentations, along with a series of non-verbal, sensory theater experiences for the general public. To curate the summit, Chicago Children’s Theatre Co-Founder and Artistic Director Jacqueline Russell is drawing from the company’s growing body of sensory work, including 17 years of Red Kite Project live experiences for children on the autism spectrum, all-access productions like X-Marks the Spot: An X-Tra Sensory Xperience for visually impaired audiences, and its recent R.O.A.R. (Residencies of Arts and Resilience) program involving trauma-informed teaching and multi-sensory integration. Stay tuned for the full line-up.
This musical based on Margaret Wise Brown’s beloved children’s book is drenched in primary colors that pay homage to Clement Hurd’s vivid illustrations in an all-new, immersive setting. Catchy songs, delightful dancing, a technicolor set, the quiet poetry of the original tale, and the humorous antics of one very nocturnal bunny all play a part in this fun, family-friendly celebration of one of the most iconic children’s books of all time.
Adapted from the book GOODNIGHT MOON by Margaret Wise Brown, © 1947 by Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Text © renewed 1975 by Roberta Brown Rauch. Illustrations © renewed 1975 by Edith T. Hurd, Clement Hurd, John Thatcher Hurd, and George Hellyer, as trustees of the Edith & Clement Hurd 1982 Trust and by Albert E. Clarke III, Trustee of the Albert E. Clarke III Living Trust dated April 3, 2013. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
CCT SPECIAL EVENT (not part of a subscription)
In addition to all the fun on CCT’s own stage in 2025-26, internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter and activist Natalie Merchant, in partnership with Chicago Children’s Theatre and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, will debut Cabinet of Wonder, a delightful introduction to the traditional nursery rhymes by Mother Goose that has been years in the making.
Cabinet of Wonder will be unsealed later this year when the 16-part music video series drops online for free viewing around the world. The videos feature Merchant playing a dual role: a modern-day librarian-teacher figure named Miss Natalie with a passion for nursery rhymes, and an 18th-century fashioned Mother Goose who introduces the children, through song and dance, to the characters in her rhymes. The series is professionally filmed, features a cast of children from CCT’s Education programming, members of the CSO with special guests, a magic cabinet, intricate costumes designed and created by Merchant herself, and shadow puppetry created by Manual Cinema. The website will include teaching material developed with support from the University of Chicago’s Thirty Million Word initiative and the Carole Robertson Center.
Throughout the 2025-26 season, CCT and CSO teaching artists will engage hundreds of Chicago children through in-school residencies at local schools and Head Start programs. In fact, Merchant’s inspiration, original compositions and costumes for Cabinet of Wonder began eight years ago while she was volunteering as a Head Start visiting artist at an underserved school in her hometown of Troy, New York. Last month, the National Head Start Association, in honor of its 60th anniversary, announced its partnership with Merchant, who is gifting them the Cabinet of Wonder curriculum to expand early learning arts access for the nearly 800,000 children and families served by Head Start programs nationwide. Read NHSA’s announcement here.
The project peaks next spring when Merchant returns to Chicago to debut her live concert, Mother Goose & The Cabinet of Wonder, Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 11 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. as part of the CSO for Kids series. Tickets will include VIP seating. Stay tuned for details. Tickets to the concerts go on sale on August 6. To purchase, visit cso.org.
Cabinet of Wonder is a co-production of Natalie Merchant, Chicago Children’s Theatre and the Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. To learn more, visit cabinetofwonder.org.