Youth Programs
Reagle Players has a variety of programs designed to give children in the West Suburban region the opportunity to expand their horizons through the performing arts. We provide a positive, nurturing environment in which to develop a variety of skills including: Improvisation, Theatre Games, Role Playing, Stage Movement & Dance, Scene Work, Character Exploration, Auditioning Skills, Vocal Technique, Stage Combat, and Technical Stage Craft.
Sign up for the Youth Programs email list and get the latest information on workshops and camp, master class teachers, and scholarship auditions!
Spring Workshop: April 20th – 23rd — a four day program with a showcase on the last day. Students receive training in voice, dance, and acting as well as Master Classes with Broadway professionals. The program culminates with a showcase at the end of the week.
Download the 2010 Spring Workshop Registration Form
Musical Theatre Camp: July 6th – 30th
Returnees from our 2009 programs recieve $25 off if they register by March 1st.
Download the 2010 Summer Camp Registration Form
Along with daily classes in voice, dance and acting, there are also electives in everything from stage craft and sight reading music, to monologues and scenic painting. Master Classes with Broadway professionals have included stage combat, physical comedy, presenting a song, and learning pieces of original Broadway choreography. Our students have had the rare opportunity to study with such master teachers as:
Gemze de Lappe, who is in great demand as a choreographer around the world, and has had an extensive Broadway career that includes working very closely with some of Broadway's most highly regarded choreographers. In both the original Broadway production and the film of The King and I, she was the original King Simon of Legree.
Kenny Raskin starred as the lead clown Everyman in Cirque du Soleil's universally loved Nouvelle Experience, and he also originated the role of Lefou, the comic sidekick of the villain Gaston, in the Broadway production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Kenny was also featured in Cirque du Soleil's 3D IMAX film entitled Journey of Man.
Sarah Pfisterer starred on Broadway and in the national tours of both Phantom of the Opera and Show Boat. A Metropolitan Opera semi-finalist, Sarah has made numerous concert appearances including The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
In addition, our Camp Teachers, Assistants and Counselors are performers as well with many distinguished credits among them.
"What makes Reagle different from all other camps in the area is the unbelievable reputation in the arts. Parents and kids know they are learning from the best. But also the kids feel so free to be able to express themselves in front of their peers and teachers…Kids who are so shy come to life because they are given encouragement by everyone." Maureen H. (camp parent)
"We all had so much fun, and the only downside is that it's ending." Tricia L. (camp student)
Reagle Counselor in Training Program
Students going into 10th grade or higher for the 2009/2010 school year may apply for a CIT position.
Counselor in Training Information
Counselor in Training Applicaion
Actors in the Classroom
In Spring 2005, Reagle piloted a project called Actors In the Classroom (AIC) to serve Waltham High School English students. A Coordinator/Director and four professional actors implemented a three-week interpretive program, structured in accordance with state educational curriculum guidelines. The pilot served ten teachers’ classrooms with forty classroom visitations, and 200 students in grades 9-12. Literary works studied, performed, and discussed were: Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Crucible, A Doll’s House, Hamlet, A Raisin' in the Sun, A Streetcar Named Desire and Fences.
The pilot was so successful that the Project has continued for the subsequent three years, 2006-08. This spring, forty individual English classes, taught by ten teachers, hosted the AIC Project. The Project provides remedial-to honors-level students with techniques for encountering challenging dramatic and lyrical language in their English texts.
Week One is devoted to coordination, preparation, lesson planning for the classroom texts being studied, and decisions about the daily topics to be discussed and performed, followed by rehearsal sessions. Weeks Two and Three are spent in classrooms, one hour per week per class for eight to ten different classes, to demonstrate and role-model through performance, to offer teachers and students specific techniques for future use, to coach individual students in oral interpretation and, finally, to sum up the key ideas of the unit.
AIC aims to introduce students to the richness and power of Shakespearean and dramatic text, by helping them confront the problems inherent within. Most high school students, studying the words of literary masters, are confronted with language that proves daunting even for adults. Without AIC, students might not fully engage with the classics, finding them too difficult and inaccessible. Thus far, we have included up to ten different classrooms annually, with many teachers who request service being turned down due to limitations of time and resources.