Children's Theatre Company Launches Spring Classes For Ages 2-18

Children's Theatre Company has announced that Virtual Academy classes for the spring season are now on sale. Classes are six weeks long, running in April and May of 2021. Classes will include a mix of theatre, music, dance, film, and technical theatre for ages 2 through 18, preschool through pre-professional. This spring also includes Born this way: Movement and Dance Inspired by LGBTQIAP+ Artists or Playtime Storytime for our youngest learnings ages 2-4.

Also included are classes specifically designed for young people with sensory sensitivities including those with ASD, Sensory Processing Disorder, anxiety, PTSD, and other disabilities and mental illnesses for ages 4 through 12. Sensory friendly classes are sponsored by U.S. Bank. Full class list is below. Registration is now available at childrenstheatre.org/virtual-academy. Scholarships are available through the ACT Pass program.

Results To Date: CTC has seen great success with bringing our robust education offerings to the digital sphere. Young people from all over the country have participated in Virtual Academy, including students from four countries. Over 14% of students received scholarships through the ACT Pass program. CTC also entered a partnership with Microsoft's Flipgrid and is currently their only theatre arts partner. Over 750 classrooms and 13 countries have participated in CTC's 69 activities developed for Flipgrid this school year. And with both of our fall virtual performances, CTC had 331 classrooms participate in virtual fieldtrips from 10 states, including 2,352 Minneapolis Public School's 2nd graders receiving their fieldtrip for free. We also received over 1,270 videos from kids across the country asking questions, responding to prompts, and sharing their creativity as part of their virtual fieldtrip to CTC.

CTC has also continued to make a difference in our Minneapolis neighborhoods. Through working with 12 community partners, 180 families streamed Corduroy for free. The Early Bridges program continued to support students digitally with asynchronous lessons in development for continued programming and greater access. CTC began Creative Play programming (trauma-informed play practice) at six sites this month. We also saw a 670% increase in family engagement with our synchronous early childhood classes encouraging play between children and their caregivers. CTC has also partnered with Community Aid Network MN since October of 2020 to serve as their food and supplies distribution center. Complete information here: https://www.canmn.org/.