Kids Express Their Artistic Side In Musical Theater Workshop

When Brooke Jurkowski noticed that her 7-year-old niece Faith had begun choreographing dance moves to the pop songs she memorized, she suggested to her sister that she sign up for a performance class.

“She loves to sing, knows every word, and she even has dance moves,” Jurkowski said. “Faith will love this kind of class.”

As it turns out, Faith will get more than just a chance to sing and dance in the summer musical directed by park district instructor Nancy Urban. (You may also recognize Urban as a .)

Over the course of seven weeks, 21 students ranging in age from 7 to 14 will have the opportunity to design sets, props, costumes, posters and learn technical aspects. They'll also select from their peers a stage manager, assistant director, costume coordinator and choreographer.

All of this preparation and hard work is for a production that doesn’t even have a name yet—the students get to choose that too.

Urban explained that she wants the students involved in every aspect of the musical. She even plans to host a summer barbeque that combines any set or poster painting with an opportunity to socialize among the performance group.

“The more involved the kids are, the more likely they will work hard at the class and enjoy it,” said Urban, who says her trick to teaching the students a lot of material is to stay “uber-organized.”

No stranger to the performing arts, Urban has a bachelor of fine arts in both musical theater and music therapy. She uses her expertise gleaned from her performances in more than 25 productions, including off-Broadway, her choreography work in 20 shows and acting studies completed at HB Studios in New York City.

The students received a CD and a packet on their first day of class that detailed the dialogue and lyrics of the 12 songs they will perform, such as “I Got Rhythm,” “Happiness” and “Smile.” The students will learn a little background about each song choice, including the composer, year it was written and what musical it appeared in.

The kids entered the first day of class with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Some raised their hands asking, “Miss Nancy, can I do a solo?” while others quietly observed the action. Urban remarked that the mix of ages provides a great dynamic for drawing out the shy students—the older ones encourage the younger ones by word and example.

And after weeks of hard work together, Urban said the level of improvement in every student is remarkable. 

“I’m not worried about the performance being super-polished. I just want every kid to get up and do it; just be involved in the whole process,” Urban said.