Chicago Children's Theatre Names New Community Programs Artistic Director

By: Mar. 24, 2016
Enter Your Email to Unlock This Article

Plus, get the best of BroadwayWorld delivered to your inbox, and unlimited access to our editorial content across the globe.




Existing user? Just click login.

Chicago Children's Theatre, the city's largest professional theater company devoted exclusively to children and young families, announced today it has hired Frank Maugeri in the new position of Community Programs Artistic Director (CPAD).

Maugeri comes to Chicago Children's Theatre (CCT) after serving as Producing Artistic Director for Chicago's Redmoon Theater for two decades. His chief responsibility in his new role will be to guarantee that "education comes first" at CCT, particularly as it relates to the company's first-ever, permanent home, currently under construction in Chicago's West Loop.

In his new position, Maugeri will report to Chicago Children's Theatre's Artistic Director Jacqueline Russell and Interim Managing Director Steve Abrams. He will support Russell's artistic season by designing and implementing innovative classroom activities, dynamic curriculum development and audience engagement opportunities that reflect the theater's overall programming.

With new opportunities for growth presented by CCT's new home, Maugeri will focus on the construction and implementation of CCT's expanded educational programs, create a fresh brand identity to support the education department's goals and vision, serve as the primary spokesperson for CCT's educational programming and community outreach, and broaden fundraising, partnership engagement and program support.

"We are so thrilled to officially welcome Frank into the Chicago Children's Theatre family. He is such a beloved, respected leader in Chicago's theater community because he brings so much energy, artistry and passion to everything he sets out to accomplish," said Russell. "Frank has had countless, incredible experiences working with Chicago children, creating hands-on, interactive learning experiences that not only entertain, but empower children, help them boost their creativity and confidence, and help gain a competitive edge by teaching life skills like how to think fast, solve problems, and be better team players."

"I have been offered an incredible opportunity with Chicago Children's Theatre. This new position meets many of my core values, including my interest in service, commitment to education, and devotion to my city and our youth," Maugeri responded.

"I look forward to the opportunity of helping transform a past police station into a performing arts home. I can't wait to develop curriculum, train teachers, create cutting-edge artistic projects for young people of many backgrounds and abilities, establish partnerships, develop a think tank for youth art and education, cultivate education stakeholders, and more than deploy theater instruction, develop creative education opportunities that integrate science, technology, engineering, and math into our curriculum. I hope to expand the theater's work to include teens, and perhaps even create some family events and experiences."

The new Chicago Children's Theatre is an adaptive re-use of the former, 12thDistrict Police Station at 100 S. Racine Avenue in Chicago's West Loop, which is now being transformed into a beautiful, mixed-use performing arts and education facility designed to serve all Chicago families.

Phase one, slated to open in January, will include classrooms and support space, where CCT's educational programming will be headquartered and start up immediately. Phase one also includes a flexible, 149-seat studio theater for student performances, Red Kite interactive theater for students with autism and professional shows. Phase two will be completed in 2020, and will boast a second, state-of-the-art, 299-seat mainstage theater.

Maugeri has dedicated his life to being an artist whose highly visual, interactive theatrical work ranges from the miniature to the mammoth. Additionally, throughout his career Maugeri has doubled as an expert collaborator, community builder, ritual maker, educator and inventor of innovative curriculum and artistic programming.

For two decades, Maugeri served as Producing Artistic Director of Redmoon Theater where he mentored hundreds of young designers, artists, performers, and educators from across the nation, while helping guide the institution's art, education and community engagement.

He established Redmoon's first Youth Board, a team of young committed professionals who pursued the mission of free public art for all, managed its Neighborhood Arts Program leaders for almost a decade, helped oversee the company's branding and messaging, and supervised Redmoon For Hire.

As a Redmoon artist, Maugeri served as a conceiver, director, and designer of countless spectacles and interactive events, including inventing family favorites like The Youth Spectacle, Skelebration, and serving as artistic director of several Winter Pageants. He also was the artistic leader of every Spectacle Lunatique, each of the theater's famous Halloween events, Boneshaker, and all of their New Years events,Revolution.

He additionally co-directed large-scale outdoor spectacles like Sink, Sank, Sunk...in Chinatown's Ping Tom Park, and was a core collaborator and community organizer of all of the famed All Hallow's Eve ritual celebrations in Logan Square. He created Redmoon's longest running production The Cabinet, and co-directed its final production, The Devil's Cabaret.

Collaborative credits include the direction of Once Upon a Time, which toured to The World Puppet Theatre Festival in Charleville-Mézières, two works for the Chicago Children's Humanities Festival at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Laika's Coffin and Cape and Squiggle, as well as Astronaut's Birthday, a large-scale animation, graphic novel projected on the Museum of Contemporary Art's façade, and co-direction of the critically acclaimed world premiere of The Elephant and The Whale with Chicago Children's Theatre, Shadow Swan Lake with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Salao: the worst kind of unlucky and The Feast: an intimate Tempest, both at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

Maugeri also co-directed such Chicago-centric events as the closing ceremony of the Great Chicago Fire Festival, elements of the groundbreaking ceremonies for Millennium Park and components of the grand opening of Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago. He also has been commissioned to create art and experience for The White House, The Chicago Park District, The City of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Los Angeles Music Center, Chicago Ideas Week, Lollapalooza, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, RedBull, JAM Productions, and many more.


Maugeri is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago and is trained in animation, sculpture and object design. After college he spent seven years in the mental health field working with mentally ill adults. He currently makes his teaching home at The University of Chicago. He is a native of Chicago and resides in Oak Park with his wife, Susan, and their nine-year-old twin children Samson and Frida.



Videos