March is Theatre in Our Schools Month, a time when schools unite to celebrate student theatre programming and raise awareness to the role theatre plays in developing well-rounded, thoughtful and empathetic leaders.
Participation in school theatre programs help students develop skills that will benefit them in the future in any path they choose. And, research has shown that students who attend live theatre performances demonstrate higher levels of social emotional skills and stronger command of the plot and vocabulary of the performance they attend, versus viewing film adaptations of the same title.
The Coal City Theatre Department produces three main stage productions each year—high school play, high school musical and middle school musical. Additionally, students with the high school Drama Club produce and direct the intermediate school musical. The theatre department has also presented summer theatre and camp programming for students.
So far this school year, over 130 students have been involved in a Coal City Theatre Department production, and thousands have viewed a performance in the Coal City Performing Arts Center. Two students were selected to perform in the Illinois Theatre Festival’s All-State Production, and the preview performance of that musical was held in our high school.
The Coal City Theatre Department has earned recognition from Broadway in Chicago's Illinois High School Musical Theatre Awards with numerous nominations in the categories of Best Actor and Best Actress, Best Performance, Best Direction and Set Design—winning in the last two categories.
Among some of the highlights for the theater program was its selection to present the high school premier of Alice by Heart and the production was also selected to be presented at the 2024 Illinois Theatre Festival.The school was selected to present the Illinois high school premier of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: High School Edition in fall 2024 and presented one of the initial productions of Hadestown in summer 2024.
Join the Coal City School District and Coal City Theatre Department in celebrating Theatre In Our Schools Month by attending the spring musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street this weekend—Friday, March 14 and Saturday, March 15 at 7 p.m., and Sunday, March 16 at 2 p.m.