PlayBuild Youth Intensive
A FREE five-week theater intensive for high school students at The Goodman.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The Goodman’s PlayBuild Youth Intensive is an entirely FREE, five-week program for 14 to 18-year-old students in the Chicago metropolitan area committed to pushing the bounds of creativity, storytelling and performance in theater arts. Held at The Goodman’s Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement, this program gives students the opportunity to learn a wide range of skills from local industry professionals and devise an original theater production created by the PlayBuild ensemble.
PlayBuild immerses students in the building blocks of live storytelling and performance, refining their skills in:
- Acting
- Playwriting/Creative Writing
- Improv
- Physical Theater
- Ensemble Work
Designed to validate the voices of its participants, PlayBuild teaches students how to examine their own potential for creativity and use their training to cultivate works of art that emphasizes the importance of civic responsibility and social change.
Program Dates
The 2026 session of the PlayBuild Youth Intensive will run Monday through Thursday from 9:30am-4:30pm at The Goodman’s Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement. The program begins on Monday, June 22 and will culminate with a final performance on Monday, July 27.
How to Apply
Each participant is required to submit a video audition with their application that includes an introduction, a 1-minute monologue performance and a 30-60 second wild card audition.
- A monologue is a long speech performed by an actor on stage, film/tv or broadcasting program.
- A wild card audition is an opportunity to showcase your personality or share something about yourself with the adjudicators. This might include, but is not limited to singing, dancing, juggling, playing an instrument, reciting an original poem, performing a short story or demonstrating a favorite hobby.
Instructions on how to record your self-tape and monologue sides can be found here: 2026 PlayBuild Audition Materials.
Callbacks for this program will take place on Saturday, February 28, 2026 at The Goodman’s Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement located at 170 N. Dearborn St.
To apply and submit your self-tape audition, please fill out the application form below.
Applications close on Friday, February 6.
Please email summerprograms@goodmantheatre.org for all inquires.
Curious?
Watch the full length performance of the 2025 PlayBuild Youth Intensive final performance: Rest and Resistance.
You can also watch the full length PlayBuild (formerly General Theater Studies) 2018 final performance, 1968: The Revolution Remastered; 2016 final performance, Fight or Flight; 2015 final performance, The Water is Rising; 2014 final performance, Heartscape; 2012 final performance, Fear and Progress; view photos from Domino Effect, the General Theater Studies 2009 final performance; or view photos from (R)Evolution, the 2010 final performance!
Playbuild Youth Intensive SponsorS
