GOODMAN THEATRE HOLDS JUNE 4 AUDITIONS FOR TWO SUMMER INTENSIVES FOR YOUTH: MUSICAL THEATER LED BY DOUG PECK AND PLAYBUILD LED BY WILLA J. TAYLOR
This Saturday, June 4, Goodman Theatre welcomes aspiring young artists aged 14-18 to audition for its brand new Summer Musical Theater Intensive (June 23 – August 14) and its long-runningPlayBuild Youth Intensive (June 27 – August 15), now in its 10th year. Both programs are offered free of charge and taught over a course of seven-to-eight weeks in the new Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement (the Alice). Auditions take place on June 4, from 10am – 12 noon. Day-of, in-person registration begins at 9:30am on a first-come, first-served basis; no calls, please. Those auditioning for the Summer Musical Theater Intensive should prepare a two-minute monologue and a 16-32 bar selection (age appropriate song of choice), along with sheet music and a current headshot. For more information regarding auditions, email
Education@GoodmanTheatre.org.
The new Summer Musical Theater Intensive offers classes and rehearsals designed to give participants a taste of a musical theater career. Led by acclaimed Chicago-based musical director Doug Peck together with Goodman teaching artists, the eight-week curriculum explores musical theater from Hello, Dolly! to Hamilton, and examines the influence of musicals on topical political and social matters. Sessions begin June 23 and run through August 13, culminating in a final performance on Sunday, August 14.
PlayBuild Youth Intensive, led by Walter Director of Education and Engagement Willa J. Taylor, uses all elements in the creation of theater to cultivate participants own voice and potential for creativity through personal history and storytelling techniques. More than 600 students have participated in PlayBuild (formerly General Theater Studies) since its inception; approximately 79% of program participants attend public schools, with 50% enrolled in Chicago Public Schools. Sessions begin June 27 and run through August 12, culminating in a final performance on Monday, August 15.
All programming takes place in the newly-opened Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement, a LEED-certified 10,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility of classrooms, a hands-on STEM learning lab, rehearsal spaces and more, accessible through Goodman Theatre. The Alice is named for Alice Rapoport, an active Goodman Trustee and past chair of the Education Committee who was deeply committed to the theater's education and outreach efforts for more than 15 years. Alice believed in the power of theater to give voice to those unheard, and to transform the world by learning about and from one another. The new center is a unique venue to further Alice's dream of bringing people together, helping student achieve their potential and making Chicago a better place.
About the Artists
Willa J. Taylor began her career in arts education at Arena Stage where, under founding director Zelda Fichandler, she established the Allen Lee Hughes Fellows Program—one of the first theater-run apprenticeships designed to increase participation by people of color in professional theater. She then went to Lincoln Center Theater where she created The Urban Ensemble, a multidisciplinary project that served at-risk youth. This collaboration between Lincoln Center and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and The Public Theater was cited by President Clinton's Council on the Arts and Humanities in its 1996 report, Coming Up Taller. At Lincoln Center, she consulted for New Victory Theatre, where she designed the arts education program for their inaugural season. Taylor also served as cultural director for Gay Games IV, where she oversaw the production of more than 200 cultural events, including the Broadway production of Sir Ian McKellen's A Knight Out. In addition to a longtime career in the arts, Taylor served for 12 years as a Russian and Arabic linguist in the US Navy. While overseas, she oversaw productions for the United Service Organization in Greece and managed Armed Forces Radio and Television in Turkey where she created the Profiles in Black history series. Following her graduation from Kendall College's culinary program in 2001, Taylor opened Taylor-Made Cuisine, a gourmet catering company as well as Home Café, a neighborhood bistro. In 2005, she helped open and served as the catering chef for Chicago's EatZi's Easygoing Gourmet, a chain of gourmet bakeries, take-out markets and restaurants based out of Dallas, Texas.
Doug Peck previously worked at the Goodman, where he previously music directed, conducted and provided additional orchestrations for Candide and Animal Crackers. He is the winner of five Jeff awards (Porgy and Bess, Caroline, or Change, Carousel, Fiorello!, Man of La Mancha) and two After Dark awards (Guys and Dolls, Hello Again). Other favorite projects include Dreamgirls, Shenandoah, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Oh, Coward!, James Joyce's The Dead, A Catered Affair, Hair, Sweet Charity, Grey Gardens, My Fair Lady, Beauty and the Beast and Raisin. His work has been heard in Chicago at Court Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Writers' Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company, Northlight Theatre, the Paramount Theatre, Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace, Porchlight Music Theatre, Ravinia Festival and the Chicago Humanities Festival. Regional credits include work at the Huntington Theatre Company, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre and Peninsula Players Theatre. Peck can be heard on the recordings Bright Young People: The Songs of Noël Coward, Foiled Again Live and Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein. For the Chicago Humanities Festival, he and Rob Lindley have presented Assassins and Follies in concert, as well as A Night at the Oscars, a chronological survey of every single song that won the Academy Award. Peck is a graduate of Northwestern University, and also trained at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He is a creative partner with the Goodman, an artistic associate with Porchlight Music Theatre and a faculty member of the National High School Institute of the Arts.
About Goodman Theatre
Called America's Best Regional Theatre by Time magazine, Goodman Theatre has won international recognition for its artists, productions and programs, and is a major cultural, educational and economic pillar in Chicago. Founded in 1925 by William O. Goodman and his family in honor of their son Kenneth (an important figure in Chicago's cultural renaissance in the early 1900s) and represented today by descendant Albert Ivar Goodman and Suzette Suki Dewey, Goodman Theatre has garnered hundreds of awards for artistic achievement and community engagement, including: two Pulitzer Prizes, 22 Tony Awards (including Outstanding Regional Theatre in 1992), nearly 160 Joseph Jefferson Awards and more. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Robert Falls and Executive Director Roche Schulfer, the Goodman's artistic priorities include new plays (more than 150 world or American premieres in the past 30 years), reimagined classics (including Falls' nationally and internationally celebrated productions of Death of a Salesman, Long's Day's Journey into Night, King Lear and The Iceman Cometh, many in collaboration with actor Brian Dennehy), culturally specific work, musical theater (26 major productions in 20 years, including 10 world premieres) and international collaborations. Diversity and inclusion have been primary cornerstones of the Goodman's mission for 30 years; over the past decade, 68% of the Goodman's 35 world premieres were authored by women and/or playwrights of color, and the Goodman was the first theater in the world to produce all 10 plays in August Wilson's American Century Cycle. Each year, the Goodman's numerous education and community engagement programs—including the innovative Student Subscription Series, now in its 30th year—serve thousands of students, teachers, life-long learners and special constituencies. In addition, for nearly four decades the annual holiday tradition of A Christmas Carol has led to the creation of a new generation of theatergoers in Chicago.
Goodman Theatre's leadership includes the distinguished members of the Artistic Collective: Brian Dennehy, Rebecca Gilman, Henry Godinez, Dael Orlandersmith, Steve Scott, Chuck Smith, Regina Taylor, Henry Wishcamper and Mary Zimmerman. Joan Clifford is Chair of Goodman Theatre's Board of Trustees, Swati Mehta is Women's Board President and Gordon C.C. Liao is President of the Scenemakers Board for young professionals.
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