Raue Center for the Arts programming has reached nearly 250,000 students
For aspiring young Thespians, this program doesn’t just merely set the stage.
Since 2007, Raue Center for the Arts has introduced the world of theatre—up close and personal—to teens and tweens in the Chicago area, through its Sage Studio theatre workshops.
And along the way, it’s also sparked a beautiful friendship or two.
“During some of the workshops we offer, we finish up with a mock audition for a working director in the region—and we’ve had some of our kids hired out of those auditions as understudies,” says Kate Wilford, general manager of Raue Center for the Arts in Crystal Lake, IL.
“We tell the kids every time: ‘These people are real directors, and you never know when they’re going to need someone like you. So bring it,’ ” she adds. “For a high school student to get paid to understudy a show . . . even if you never go on stage, the experience is huge.”
Over the years, graduates of the Sage Studio workshops and boot camps—led by working professional actors, directors and set designers—have gone on to pursue acting careers at top colleges and universities, and appear in productions across the Chicagoland region.
And that’s just one way that Raue Center for the Arts helps activate an interest in the arts at an early age. Since 2001, when it reopened in downtown Crystal Lake, Raue Center programming has reached nearly 250,000 students in northeast Illinois through:
- The Mission Imagination program, which buses in K-to-12 classes for live shows during the school year;
- An outreach program, which sees Raue Center bring authors and actors out to area schools; and
- Sage Studio, which has seen an exponential increase in registration for students aged 7 to 14.
Access to the arts, regardless of financial situation, is important to Raue Center. Sage Studio workshops are offered at a reasonable fee, and all Mission Imagination shows—including those put on by Raue Center’s own Williams Street Repertory—have offered a locked-in $6 student ticket for the past eight years, thanks to support of the Foglia Family Foundation.
Enbridge is committed to helping strengthen communities near our projects and operations, through cultural enrichment and opportunities to grow and lead. In 2015, we invested in more than 750 non-profit community organizations across North America—and we recently supported Raue Center’s youth programming with a $2,000 donation.
“For the kids who go through our workshops and boot camps, the biggest thing I’m seeing is confidence—and creating a social network that doesn’t involve a smartphone,” says Wilford.
“Since we’re not affiliated with one particular school, they’re developing long-lasting friendships with kids from other towns, other schools—and they all have this love for the arts.”
