To give back to the great city from which we take our name and to ensure a vibrant and healthy future for Chicago theatre, we regularly offer playwriting workshops to young writers in the Chicago Public Schools. Not only does this important program generate exciting new plays, it increases language skills and literacy and encourges encourage creativity and self-expression in the young people whose lives we touch. It also helps develop academic discipline, expand cultural appreciation on both sides, and promote the value of live theatre to audiences of the future.

Each semester, our playwriting instructors conduct ten-week workshops in select Chicago high schools. The workshops culminate in staged readings of student work by professional actors and directors, performed before student and community audiences in the schools. This program serves more than 400 students each year at 12 schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

And we're proud to offer the same customized student training to middle schools and high schools throughout Chicagoland. (Download our attractive brochure to find out more.)

We also also conduct annual developmental showcases of readings for the work of playwriting students at The Theatre School of DePaul University and work with students of Northwestern University’s MFA Program in Writing for the Stage and Screen.

Can we do this vital work alone? No way, brother. This program is generously supported through grants from the Chicago Community Trust, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Northern Trust Charitable Trust, Polk Bros. Foundation, and Seabury Foundation... all of whom understand the importance of theatre and its potential impact on young lives.