REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN FOR PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE’S 2025 SPRING CLASSES, FEBRUARY 15 - MAY 17, AT DEPAUL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC

ChiIL Mama's Chi, IL Picks List: Kids' Classes On Our Radar

Industry Professionals Teach Classes in Musical Theatre And Life Skills for Young Actors Aged 4 - 13 Years Old 

While Preparing Them to Create and Perform an Original Music Theatre Piece

All photos courtesy of Porchlight Music Theatre

Award-winning Porchlight Music Theatre’s Education Department is proud to announce the return of its Spring Youth Classes, February 15 - May 17, with registration now available for all sessions. Also, Porchlight offers a sample option for the first day of class, Saturday, Feb. 15, for interested students and parents wanting to learn more about the 2025 Porchlight offerings. Families can sign up for a class sampler, Saturday, Feb. 15 for $25 and if they decide to register, the trial class will be credited towards the cost of registration.

Youth classes are designed to teach young actors musical theatre skills from basics to advanced while enabling students to also learn life skills such as effective communication and self-esteem. Classes are held at the Holtschneider Performance Center at the DePaul University School of Music, 2330 N. Halsted St. Tuition is $300 - $600 based on the class level with payment plans and scholarships available for all youth programming. For specific questions regarding camps and registration, please email Porchlight Education Director Rebeccah Singer at Rebeccah@PorchlightMusicTheatre.org. For general camp information and registration, visit PorchlightMusicTheatre.org/youth-classes/.

Chicago’s favorite music theatre classes return this spring with fun, jam-packed musical sessions for ages 4 - 13 years old. New and returning young actors will spend 13 weeks singing, dancing, meeting new friends and creating an original musical piece or revue to share with family and friends on the last day of class.

Porchlight classes and camps are process-over-product focused programs designed to boost confidence, empathy and a love of the arts. Young actors join session after session to build on previous skills – from music theatre basics up to college audition readiness in a nurturing and fun environment.

Sample Week One of Class

Saturday, Feb. 15

10 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Porchlight invites new students to experience the first week of spring classes Saturday, Feb. 15 for just $25. If participants enjoy their first class and want to continue, the cost of the trial will be applied to the rest of the term fee.

The classes offered include:

Mini Musicals (ages 4-6) - 10 - 11 a.m.

Broadway Basics (ages 7-10) - 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Intermediate Ensemble (ages 11-13) - 1:30 - 3:30 p.m.

All classes will meet at DePaul School of Music (2330 N. Halsted). For additional information or to register, please go to PorchlightMusicTheatre.org/youth-classes/.

The Porchlight Spring Youth Classes 2025 schedule includes:

Mini Musicals

Ages 4 – 6 years old

February 15 - May 17 (no class 4/19)

Saturdays, 10 - 11 a.m.

Holtschneider Performance Center, DePaul University School of Music, 2330 N. Halsted St.

Tuition: $300

Budding actors join us each week for songs, games, making new friends, and having a blast on stage! Our youngest students stretch their theatre muscles as they create an original musical story – with dance moves, props and songs to share with family and friends on the last day of class!

Broadway Basics

Ages 7 – 10 years old

February 15 - May 17 (no class 4/19)

Saturdays, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Holtschneider Performance Center, DePaul University School of Music, 2330 N. Halsted St.

Tuition: $450

Enter the world of music, drama, dance, writing and more while practicing teamwork, communication and problem-solving. Students will be introduced to their actor tools — their bodies, voices and imaginations — while singing and dancing to classic and contemporary Broadway hits, writing their own story and with lots of time for playing games and making new friends. At the end of the session join us for a final performance to celebrate all your young actors’ work!

Intermediate Ensemble

Ages 11 – 13 years old

February 15 - May 17 (no class 4/19)

Saturdays, 1:30 - 3:30 p.m.

Holtschneider Performance Center, DePaul University School of Music, 2330 N. Halsted St.

Tuition: $600

Returning and new middle school aged actors join us to grow as they focus on classic or contemporary musicals, learn musical theater songs, choreography and create a musical revue to share with family and friends.

NOTE: All class content, dates, times, etc. are subject to change. For the most up to date information, please visit PorchlightMusicTheatre.org/youth-classes/.

ABOUT PORCHLIGHT EDUCATION AND ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS

Porchlight Music Theatre’s Youth Programs serve those ages 4 – 17 years old and are grounded in the power of the American art form of music theatre to tell stories and inspire confidence and a love of the arts. The Engagement Programs deepen audience connection to the art, artists and the community.

ABOUT PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE

Porchlight Music Theatre, now in its 30th season, is the award-winning center for music theatre in Chicago. Through live performance, youth education and community outreach, we impact thousands of lives each season, bringing the magic of musicals to our theatre home at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in the Gold Coast and to neighborhoods across the city. Porchlight has built a national reputation for boldly reimagining classic musicals, supporting new works and young performers, and showcasing Chicago’s most notable music theatre artists, all through the intimate and powerful theatrical lens of the “Chicago Style.”

Porchlight's history over the last 30 years includes more than 70 mainstage works with 15 Chicago premieres and five world premieres. Porchlight’s commitment to the past, present and future of music theatre led the company to develop the Porchlight Revisits and New Faces Sing Broadway program series, both quickly becoming audience favorites.

Porchlight's education and outreach programs serve schools, youth of all ages and skill levels and community organizations, most notably the ongoing collaboration with Chicago Youth Centers. Porchlight annually awards dozens of full scholarships and hundreds of free tickets to ensure accessibility and real engagement with this uniquely American art form.

The company’s many honors include 178 Joseph Jefferson Award (Jeff) nominations and 49 Jeff awards, as well as 44 Black Theatre Alliance (BTA) nominations and 15 BTA awards. In 2019, Porchlight graduated to the Large Theatre tier of the Equity Jeff Awards and has been honored with seven awards in this tier to date including Best Ensemble for Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies (2019) and Best Production-Revue for Blues in the Night (2022).

Through the global pandemic, Porchlight emerged as one of Chicago’s leaders in virtual programming, quickly launching a host of free offerings like Sondheim @ 90 Roundtables, Movie Musical Mondays, Porchlight by Request: Command Performances and WPMT: Classic Musicals from the Golden Age of Radio. In 2021, Porchlight launched its annual summer series, Broadway in your Backyard, performing at parks and venues throughout the city.

Porchlight Music Theatre is partially supported by generous contributions from Allstate; Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation; Glimpse Vision; James P. and Brenda S. Grusecki Family Foundation; Hearty Boys; A.L. and Jennie L. Luria Foundation; The MacArthur Fund for Culture, Equity and the Arts at Prince; the Pritzker Traubert Foundation; Ryan and Spaeth, Inc.; Daniel and Genevieve Ratner Foundation; The Saints and Dr. Scholl Foundation.

The season program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency, and by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events. 

Porchlight Music Theatre wishes to thank members of the Matching Gift Corporate Program including Abbvie; Allstate; Lloyd A. Fry Foundation; Peoples Gas; Pepsico; Polk Bros Foundation and The Saints. 

Education Advocates Issue Statement as ESEA Mark-up Begins #Education

Today as the Senate HELP Committee begins the mark-up of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS) issued the following statement:

“Fifty years after the enactment of the ESEA, this country has never provided even close to the resources that Congress itself identified as necessary to ensure that high-poverty schools and students had access to the education that all our children deserve.  The proposed ESEA reauthorization language in the Senate—unless adjusted through the HELP Committee mark-up process—fails once again to meet the needs of our most vulnerable students in these particular areas:

·       Full funding:  In 1965, Congress recognized that the federal government had a critical role to play in ensuring equity and justice, particularly for low-income, and students of color. It was Congress, at that time, which estimated that these students required supplemental support amounting to about 40% in addition to state per pupil spending. Title I of ESEA was designed to provide that targeted support.  We need Congress to move towards meeting that full funding goal.

·       Community Schools:  With appropriate resources, public schools—particularly in very low income communities—can address not only the need for rich academic content, but also for additional student supports like health care, tutoring, social and emotional supports and strong enrichment programs that help close the gap between the opportunities of the poor and those of more affluent students and communities.  That is why AROS is recommending a $1 billion commitment to the creation of sustainable community schools—a concept that is not realized in the current Senate proposal.

·       Reckless and unaccountable expansion of charter schools:  This proposal, as written, continues the role of the federal government as the nation’s largest funder of new charter schools, at a time when charter proliferation is actually hurting educational opportunity in many districts.   We are calling for a moratorium on federal funding for new charters until questions about the program’s accountability and impact are fully addressed.

·       Ending the School-to-Prison Pipeline:  We must support educators, administrators, students and schools to change the culture of education and end the school-to-prison pipeline. The Senate bill takes a step in the right direction by requiring tracking and monitoring of school discipline disparities.  We are calling on Congress to target funding to restorative justice programs in ways that support schools as they transition away from zero-tolerance.

Working together, we can do better than the current language of the Senate ESEA proposal.  Today, when more than half of all public school children are living in poverty, and when the gap between the richest and poorest Americans is larger than ever, it is time for Congress to step up and do what’s right.  Public education is too important to force austerity budgets and to think that the answer can be found in cookie-cutter, Walmart-style schools. It’s time to invest more heavily in the schools that all our children deserve.”

On April 7^th, the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools sent a letter to House and Senate Leadership, including four recommendations for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

 See the letter here: http://www.reclaimourschools.org/updates/aros-esea

The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS) is a national coalition of community and labor organizations working to strengthen public education and counter-act the effects of two decades of corporate-led reform efforts on high poverty schools and communities.

The School Project Documentary Is Coming & We Might Be In It! #theschoolproject

"The School Project" is coming! My 11 year old daughter, Sage, and her teacher and I were all interviewed for the series along with many more parents, students and educators. We could have ended up on the cutting room floor, but regardless of whether we're in the final cut, these issues are HUGELY IMPORTANT and merit a look. Check it out.

The first of six School Project segments, “Worst In The Nation?” will address Chicago’s grassroots, education reform efforts of the late 1980s, which were already building at the time then-U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett bestowed the notorious “worst in the nation” title on the city’s schools. The segment will also explore why the phrase has been re-quoted for three decades, and what the city can do to get rid of that title for good.  There will be a panel & q&a after the screening, moderated by veteran news journalist Carol Marin.  The conversation will concentrate on  the city of Chicago’s reform efforts from the mid-1980s through today.

The School Project is a six-part series of 10-minute segments.  The series’ interactive website will launch simultaneously at www.schoolprojectfilm.com.  Co-production partners include Free Spirit Media, Kartemquin Films, Kindling Group, Media Process Group, Siskel/Jacobs Productions, and producers Rachel Dickson and Melissa Sterne. Outreach partners include WTTW/Channel 11, the Chicago Sun-Times, Catalyst Chicago, the Chicago History Museum and Ebony.com.

Other segments in the series will look at local perspectives on the recent mass school closings in Chicago, the expansion of charter schools, the controversy surrounding standardized testing, school discipline policies, and the history of reforms and educational models. The series examines the roots of these issues and how each policy impacts the wider school community in Chicago and its implications on a national level. 

The interactive website, www.schoolprojectfilm.com, will allow visitors to watch the documentary and see how it maps to the Chicago Public Schools system. Users can explore news media and content related to individual schools, data trends and demographics, and share their stories and opinions about public school education.

Chicago’s PBS station WTTW will also broadcast each segment during their flagship “Chicago Tonight” News Program, and the Sun-Times, Ebony.com and Catalyst Chicago will contribute additional web-based content.

Follow the series at:
facebook.com/theschoolproject
@theschoolpr
#theschoolproject