Chicago Children’s Theatre

Chicago Children’s Theatre is Chicago’s premier professional theatre company exclusively dedicated to creating high-quality theatrical productions and educational programming for children and families. Located in the West Loop neighborhood, the organization has served more than half-a-million students and families since its formation in 2005 with innovative productions, classes, and camps designed to inspire children to lead lives of adventure, courage, and curiosity.

The theatre produces professional mainstage productions featuring award-winning actors, directors, internationally recognized authors and composers, with an emphasis on access and inclusion. Productions address important societal issues relevant to Chicago’s diverse communities including bullying, race relations, immigration, human rights, violence and trauma, and environmental conservation. The theatre offers ACCESS performances with open captioning, ASL interpreters, sensory-friendly adaptations, and touch tours for children who are blind or low-vision.

Educational programming includes year-round classes for all ages and experience levels, led by professional teaching artists. Weekly classes run in sessions throughout the winter, spring, summer, and fall helping students gain confidence, develop artistic voices, and build lasting friendships. The theatre offers summer camps, spring break camps, and school’s-out day camps for children grades K-5 during CPS non-attendance days. Special benefits for Skinner West students include free after-school pick-up and pre-class homework help.

The Red Kite Project represents groundbreaking programming for youth on the autism spectrum and their families, including specialized classes, camps, original productions, sensory-friendly performances, and in-school residencies. The theatre underwrites over 10,000 reduced-price and free tickets annually to under-resourced schools. Field trip opportunities and in-school residencies bring professional theatre education directly to students. Financial aid is available for education programs.