ABOUT US

History | Mission Statement | Executive Board | Directions

Purple Crayon Players is a nationally recognized, award-winning group comprised entirely of Northwestern students committed to producing professionally written plays for young audiences. Established in 2005, we are one of the newest, yet highly acclaimed, theatre groups on campus, receiving the 2006 “Best New Student Group” award.

Since then, Purple Crayon Players has produced its first ever literary season, expanded opportunities for direct youth involvement with show-related creative drama workshops, and led a devised performance workshop with students from El Cuarto Año school in Humboldt Park. Finally, we created opportunities for new work development with PLAYground, our third annual festival of student-directed staged readings of three professional TYA playwrights' works-in-progress.

Purple Crayon Players plays an active role on-campus, showcasing Northwestern undergraduates' creativity with special projects such as devised performances and storytelling events.

And finally, Purple Crayon Players is committed to making connections with the TYA field at large. In the summer of 2010, Purple Crayon presented at the American Alliance for Theatre & Education national conference in San Francisco, CA. Our sesion was titled "Shifting Ground on College Campuses: Exploring the Undergraduate TYA Model". Coincidentally, AATE also awarded Purple Crayon Players the 2010 Winifred Ward Outstanding New Children's Theatre Company Award! We will be presenting again at this summer's AATE conference in Chicago. Visit www.AATEConference.com for more information!

The main goal of Purple Crayon Players is to create thought-provoking, smart and entertaining theatre for young audiences as well as to help children better understand theatre and themselves through workshops, classes and games. We believe theatre for young audiences is theatre for all audiences, and invite you to join us for our upcoming season of classic plays and risk-taking new projects. Please continue to explore our website for more information about us, photos of past shows, tour information, and much more!