The Red Kite Residency Program is our in-school class offering for classrooms with youth on the autism spectrum and with other developmental or cognitive disabilities. Our curriculum includes a number of theatre games, multi-sensory experiences, and music integration in both turn-based and group activities.
Program Goals
Red Kite Drama Time is an adaptive theater program for young people on the autism spectrum and other neurodiverse learners. The primary pillars of our curriculum are social-emotional learning (SEL), creative drama, and English Language Arts speaking and listening skills. Guided by highly trained theatre artists, students use existing stories as the basis for creating their own monologues and scenes, while exploring their emotional expressivity and understanding through the hands-on practice of theatre. Our classes engage in creative play and sensory experiences to encourage students to connect with their unique body, voice, imagination, and with the community around them.
The main goals of this program include: imaginative play, greater confidence in communication skills, facial emotion recognition, turn-taking, and collaboration. This program is inclusive for children who communicate both verbally and non-verbally. Each class is 45 minutes in length.
Important info for a successful program:
- Classrooms are limited to 15 students
- There must be a minimum of 2 classroom teachers participating
- CCT will have 2 teaching artists (trained by theatre professionals and experts in creating accessible drama classrooms), at each of the 45-minute sessions
Spring 2025 Applications are Closed
Check back next winter for opportunities to bring Red Kite to your school’s cluster classrooms at no cost. If you’d like to learn more about bringing an at-cost residency to your school this spring, complete the Residency Inquiry form below!
Inquire
To inquire about a Red Kite residency and receive details on pricing, please fill out the residency inquiry form below and we will contact you shortly.
Learn more about our Teaching Artists, Red Kite Adventures, and Access Weekends.
If you have questions regarding Red Kite Residencies please contact us at redkite@chicagochildrenstheatre.org or by calling (312) 374-8829.