With schools in Illinois closed for the remainder of the current school year, families may be scrambling to find enrichment activities for the quarantine to take the place of their usual extracurricular outings. Several theater companies have either created new family-oriented material or stepped up their existing online roster of classes to address the need.
But another goal was to find ways to involve the entire family. CCT quickly unveiled the “Play at Home” video contest, which encourages kids and families to create a short (five minutes or less) play involving “a mythical creature of your choice, an evil villain, AND one of your family members.” The contest is open through May 31, with submissions regularly uploaded to the CCT YouTube channel. “A lot of the kids are creating and directing their parents, which is really fun to watch,” says Russell. “And I think it’s empowering for the children to be creative leaders in their family.”
CCT is also continuing its Red Kite program of classes for children with autism online. “That has been kind of blossoming, and we’re just amazed at every session how many kids keep joining us,” says Russell. “A lot of those kids are not necessarily right here in Chicago. So we have this geographic barrier that is broken down.” She also notes that one advantage of the Zoom classes for the Red Kite students is that they can see everyone’s faces at the same time, which is important for students who sometimes have difficulty reading visual cues.
She adds: “All of our theater is from the youth perspective. It is not necessarily children’s theater. We don’t recommend kids under eight coming to our shows.”
Filament Theatre
OTHER THEATER FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES ONLINE
