Beck Center For The Arts Reveals 75th Anniversary with its 2023-2024 Youth Theater Season

Beck Center for the Arts has announced the 75th Youth Theater Season for 2023-2024.

The 2023-2024 season includes shows for the entire family. The season begins with mystery and mayhem. Audiences will be giggling at the collection of family character in It’s a Madhouse! by Todd Wallinger, and directed by Russel Stich. Next up is a comedy for the ages, where you can reminisce on your favorite fandoms in Going Medieval: A Ye Olde Comedie written and directed by Rachel Spence. Our teens will rule the halls and cafeteria like only a drama queen teens can in Mean Girls (High School Version). Click your heels to finish up the season in a classic favorite for all ages, The Wizard of Oz.

“We are elated to be celebrating 75 years of Youth Theater alongside the 90th anniversary of Beck Center for the Arts,” states Sarah Clare, Associate Director of Theater Education. “This season allows us to explore the connections we make and how we are at our best when we use our individual and unique talents to come together as a community to solve problems and create a better world where we are safe to explore our passions, whether they are deemed ‘nerdy’ or not!”

Beck Center for the Arts’ Youth Theater alumni include Michael Chernus (Orange Is the New Black; Manhattan; Severance); Dee Hoty (three-time Tony Nominee); Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold; Transformers: The Last Night); Rory O’Malley (Hamilton; Tony Nominee, Book of Mormon); and Daniel Reichard (Drama Desk Nominee, Jersey Boys).

Ticket prices are $15 Adult/Senior, and $13 Children/Student (ages 18 & under). Please reserve tickets at beckcenter.org, call 216.521.2540 or simply stop by Beck Center Customer Service in person.

Entire season lineup available at: beckcenter.org/youth-theater.

It’s a Madhouse!

Written by Todd Wallinger

Direction by Russel Stich

October 26-Oct 29, 2023: Senney Theater.
Student Matinee: Thursday, October 26, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. 

Friday and Saturday performances at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday performances at 3:00 p.m

This show is produced with special arrangement by Pioneer Drama Service, Denver, Colorado

Best-selling mystery author Byron Pembroke is dead.  Soon after, his highly dysfunctional family gathers on a dark and stormy evening for the reading of the will. Each family member has their own reason to believe they’ll receive the estate, but the family soon finds out that instead of naming an heir, Byron condensed his fortune into one mysterious object and left it to...  whoever finds it first! The mansion is overrun by a horde of strangers seeking shelter from the storm, and once the strangers find out about the hidden treasure, they soon join in the hunt.

Going Medieval: A Ye Olde Comedy

Written and Directed by Rachel Spence
December 8-17, 2023: Studio Theater
Student Matinee on Thursday, December 14, 2024 at 10:00 a.m.
Friday and Saturday performances at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday performances at 3:00 p.m.

Dragons and wizards onstage? Surely, you joust! Armed with only a role-player's handbook and multi-sided dice, three modern day fantasy geeks are magically transported and forced to save the kingdom of Nerdvana from those who would like to see it destroyed. Our phenomenal pre-teens will have you laughing along with this original fantasy spoof featuring students ages 6-12.

Mean Girls: The High School Version
Book by Tina Fey, music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Neil Benjamin.

Based on the Paramount Pictures film Mean Girls
Directed by Sarah Clare

Choreography by Emma Clark
March 15-24, 2024: Senney Theater
Student Matinee on Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 10:00 a.m.

Friday and Saturday performances at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday performances at 3:00 p.m.
This show is produced with special arrangement by Music Theatre International (MTI)

Audiences follow Cady Heron as she navigates the transition from growing up on an African savanna, to the wild and vicious ways of suburban Illinois. She takes on The Plastics, led by the vicious and beautiful Regina George. But when Cady and her friends devise a "Revenge Party" to end Regina’s reign, she learns the hard way that you can’t cross a Queen Bee without getting stung.

The Wizard of Oz

By L. Frank Baum

Music and Lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg.

Adapted by John Kane for the Royal Shakespeare Company

Direction by Carolyn Demanelis

Music Direction by Heidi Herczeg

May 10-19, 2024: Senney Theater

Student Matinee on Thursday, May 16, 2024 at 10:00 a.m.

Friday and Saturday performances at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday performances at 3:00 p.m.

Our 75th Diamond Youth Theater Season will conclude as we follow Dorothy down the Yellow Brick Road. This charming musical features students ages 6-19, with Little Dorothy Gale of Kansas who dreams of what lies beyond the rainbow. One day a twister hits her farm and carries her away over that rainbow to the land of Oz where she and her pup Toto meet the Scarecrow, the Tinman, the Cowardly Lion. Together they learn about friendship, bravery, and ultimately, that There’s No Place Like Home.

Please note students must be enrolled in the same semester that the show performs in to be eligible to participate in the production.  You do not have to be enrolled at the time of auditions.