History
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Chicago Children's Theatre is the premier professional theatre company providing Chicago youth and families with high quality theatrical productions and meaningful educational programming. Believing strongly that families with children challenged by complex disabilities are often marginalized in the cultural community, left without access to the arts, Chicago Children's Theatre introduced The Red Kite Project during its 2007-2008 season.
The Red Kite Project is the brainchild of Artistic Director Jacqueline Russell. Russell's ten-plus year commitment to serving children with special needs, and children with autism in particular, led her to participate during the summer of 2006 in a special hands-on workshop with London's Oily Cart company, a unique organization exclusively focused on serving the very young and children with complex disabilities. In continuing dialogue with Oily Cart, Chicago Children's Theatre collaborated with them to develop Red Kite/Blue Moon, an interactive, multi-sensory installation performance under the Red Kite Project banner, created especially for children with autism and their families at Chicago Children's Museum in April of 2008.
Building on its past experience and expertise, Chicago Children's Theatre continues to partner with autism experts, special education teachers, and talented artists to develop new programming for the Red Kite Project, including this summer's Camp Red Kite. Chicago Children's Theatre is also in the development stages of a new installation performance piece for children with autism slated for production in 2010.