Celebrate and raise funds to support Chicago’s first and largest professional theater devoted to young audiences at Chicago Children’s Theatre’s 20th Anniversary Gala, Friday, October 10 at City Winery, 1200 W. Randolph St.
Cocktails start at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m., program at 8 p.m., and dancing and live music performed by The Ron Burgundy’s at 9 p.m. Shop CCT’s epic silent auction, raise a paddle to support theater for young audiences at the live auction and enjoy an evening of whimsy, spectacle, glamour and fun.
Tickets are $250 per person; $400 per couple. Visit chicagochildrenstheatre.org/special-events to purchase tickets. Sponsor tables are also available.
Chicago Children’s Theatre Co-Founder and Artistic Director Jacqueline Russell and CCT supporter Bill Boyer raising their paddle at last year’s gala. Photo by Amy Nelson.
20 Years in the Making: Chicago Children’s Theatre
Chicago Children’s Theatre took to the stage in 2005 with a big idea: Chicago is the greatest theater city in the world, and it deserves a great children’s theater. Now, in 2025-26, Chicago Children’s Theatre is celebrating 20 years of progress, and the potential of the future.
Chicago Children's Theatre remains the only children's theater ever to be honored by the American Theatre Wing (The Tony's) with a National Theatre Company Award, by virtue of being "a burgeoning innovator, shaping its local community through the theater arts." The company’s achievements also include:
- Over one-million community members served
- 24 World Premieres, with a focus on adapting contemporary children’s literature for the stage by Black and Brown authors
- 8 NEA Awards, recognizing theatrical productions of the highest standards of excellence
- Financial assistance and scholarships to over a quarter million CPS students
- Breaking barriers with the city's very first theatrical programming for young people on the autism spectrum, the internationally-heralded Red Kite Project
- An industry leader in Access programs for youth with all types of special needs
- The 2017 opening of Chicago Children’s Theatre’s permanent home in the West Loop, a former police station reimagined into a mixed use performing arts, education, and community center
- And countless other achievements
Gala sponsors (at press time) include The Leland Family, The Kaminski Family, The Saltiel Family, The Knowles/Wortendyke Family, The Neveux Family, The Vojta Family, Thoma Bravo, The Garg Family, The Kron-Mueller Family, Kathy and Jack Lavin, Curtis Wilgosh, and multiple anonymous donors. In-kind donors include Dorothy’s Sweet Shop, Jazzy Flowers and Whirlwind Coffee.
Currently, Chicago Children’s Theatre is in rehearsals for its 20th Anniversary season opener, Leo Lionni’s Frederick, a warm-hearted musical based on Lionni’s Caldecott Award-winning book about a mouse who saves the day (September 27-November 16). CCT’s 2025-26 season also includes The Beatrix Potter Holiday Party, a holiday rite of passage for Chicago toddlers (December 6-28), the first Chicago All-Access Sensory Theatre Summit (February 2026), and an all-new, immersive staging of Goodnight Moon (April 11-June 7, 2026). Season packages are still available offering 15% off single tickets. Visit chicagochildrenstheatre.org to purchase subscriptions or single tickets.
In addition to all the fun on CCT’s stage, the company’s 2025-26 season will also boast internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter and activist Natalie Merchant, in partnership with Chicago Children’s Theatre and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, will debut Cabinet of Wonder, a delightful introduction to the traditional nursery rhymes by Mother Goose. Cabinet of Wonder will be unsealed later this year when the 16-part music video series drops online for free viewing around the world.
About Chicago Children’s Theatre
“The Chicago theater scene is legendarily vibrant, so naturally a number of companies tailor productions to younger audiences. The cream of the crop is Chicago Children’s Theatre.” – Chicago Tribune
Chicago Children’s Theatre, 100 S. Racine St. in Chicago’s West Loop, is Chicago’s destination for the best plays, musicals, classes and performing arts camps for young audiences, students and families.
The company was founded in 2005 with a big idea: Chicago is the greatest theater city in the world, and it deserves a great children’s theater. Now celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2025-26, Chicago Children’s Theatre is the city’s largest professional theater company devoted exclusively to children and young families.
In 2017, following 11 years of itinerancy, Chicago Children’s Theatre opened its forever home in Chicago’s West Loop community. Formerly the 12th District Chicago Police Station, the building was repurposed into a LEED Gold-certified, mixed-use performing arts, education and community engagement facility. For children, parents, caregivers and teachers, CCT is now a convenient, welcoming community hub, centrally located in the city, with free, onsite parking.
Chicago Children’s Theatre has established a national reputation for the production of first-rate children’s theater with professional writing, performing, and directorial talent and high-quality design and production expertise. In 2017, Chicago Children’s Theatre was the first theater for young audiences to win a National Theatre Award from the American Theatre Wing, creators of the Tony Awards. In 2019, the company won the National TYA Artistic Innovation Award from Theatre for Young Audiences/USA.
In tandem with its live productions, Chicago Children’s Theatre offers a full slate of Access services for patrons with disabilities, including ASL interpretation, open captioning, touch tours and sensory friendly performances. Chicago Children’s Theatre provides live theater experiences, classes and camps for children with autism and other special needs via its Red Kite Project. CCT also provides thousands of free and reduced-price tickets to weekday student matinees to under-resourced schools in partnership with Chicago Public Schools.
In addition to shows, CCT offers a full, year-round roster of performing arts education programs for ages 0 to 14. Visit chicagochildrenstheatre.org/family-programs for information on classes, workshops, winter, spring break and “school’s out” camps, and summer camps. Due to popular demand, in addition to its home in the West Loop, CCT camps and classes have expanded to new locations including Menomonee Club Drucker Center in Lincoln Park.
Chicago Children’s Theatre is supported by Goldman Sachs Gives, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, The Ralla Klepak Foundation for Education in the Performing Arts, Polk Bros Foundation, The MacArthur Fund for Culture, Equity and the Arts, Bayless Family Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Camp Out for Kids, Crown Family Philanthropies, PwC, Rivers Gives, US Bank, Thomabravo, Theater League Kansas City, Illinois Arts Council Agency and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE).
Chicago Children’s Theatre is led by Co-Founders, Artistic Director Jacqueline Russell and Board Chair Todd Leland, with Board President Armando Chacon. For more, visit chicagochildrenstheatre.org.