Tickets are On Sale for CELEBRATION OF AUTHORS 2026 on June 27!

A banner that reads, Celebration of Authors. Saturday June 27.

CELEBRATION OF AUTHORS 2026!

SATURDAY, JUNE 27 from 12:30PM – 3:30PM CDT

At The NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MEXICAN ART

Sponsored by WINTRUST BANK & FORWARD SPACE

    It’s both our annual gala AND a family-friendly, interactive festival!
Buy Tickets Now!

 

Silent Auction! Games! Food + Drinks! Open Bar for adult guests! 360 Photo Booth! And of course, LIVE performances of stories written by our students for the 2025/26 School Year!


Attire: Fancy Schmancy where you can come Fancy – dressed to the nines in your best attire. Or you can come Schmancy – with a silly hat or funny outfit that expresses YOU!

You can bid on our amazing Silent Auction Prizes at the event, or remotely from anywhere! Silent Auction items include: A Trip to Mexico with Vidanta Resorts, A Sailing Excursion, An At-Home Dungeons & Dragons Session, Dining Packages, Sports Tickets, Theatre Tickets, and MORE! Stay tuned for a preview and get those bids ready!

This is the most affordable & most FUN Gala in town!
Tickets include food, drinks, a show, and activities for all ages!

EARLY BIRD Adult Tickets (available through 5/31)—$50
EARLY BIRD Youth Tickets, ages 4 to 15 (available through 5/31)—$35
Adult Regular Tickets —$75
Youth Regular Tickets, ages 4 to 15 —$50
Children 3 years of age and under can attend for FREE

Because PlayMakers’ students rock, they typically go on to do exciting things. Every year, we use our banquet to honor a special alum. This year’s Annual Storyteller of the Year Award goes to Isabella Wilhemy Sanchez. Isabella is a special effects make up designer, and former PlayMakers Laboratory student!!!


Isabella Wilhelmy Sanchez has been in the performing arts ever since she was a student at Play Makers Laboratory. She graduated as a theater major from Lincoln Park High School and has been working in the Chicago Indie film scene working on shorts like The Crossing 2020, Perfectly Sane 2025, Wild Party 2025 and I Only Sleep When The Room Is Pitch Black 2025. Isabella has worked under Chicago based makeup artist Anthony Kosar learning more of the makeup profession and learning skills like laying beards and applying prosthetics to create characters/monsters. Isabella’s passion for story telling was nurtured by the teaching artists at PML and is thrilled to join us at the Celebration of Authors gala to share more of her journey, and to celebrate creatives of all ages in Chicago.

Buy Tickets Now!


Can’t attend our party? We’ll miss you! Consider donating to support arts education in Chicago. Thank you!

Additional Information:

This event is a fundraiser to support PML’s outstanding creative writing programming in partnership with Chicago Public Schools. 100% of the tickets proceeds will support PML classes! For 29 years PlayMakers Laboratory has served Chicago Public School students by providing a creative writing residency program aimed primarily at elementary schools. Our company of over 60 teaching artists utilizes creative drama and storytelling to promote literacy and self esteem during our in-school residencies and park district programming. Each year, our programs serve more than 4,000 young people across Chicago. In our 6 week writing residencies, a whopping 88% of students improve writing scores by at least one level over the course of our residencies. Plus, 100% of classroom teachers report that our program supports their student’s writing and improves confidence and self-esteem.

Celebration of Authors is sponsored in part by

Wintrust Bank
wintrust1
Forward Space
forwardspace

PlayMakers Laboratory is sponsored in part by

The Chicago Community Trust,
Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events,
The Crown Family Philanthropies,
The Field Foundation,
The Illinois Arts Council
The Mardi Gras Fund,
The Paul M. Angell Foundation,
The Polk Bros Foundation,
The Siragusa Family Foundation,
And generous Individuals like you!

The National Museum of Mexican Art has a ramp and is accessible to wheelchairs, both manual and electric. PML staff are not able to assist patrons transferring to or from a wheelchair, theatre seat or vehicle. Service animals are permitted. At this time there is not a planned usage of audio descriptions, Open Captioning, or for ASL interpreters to be in attendance. For any additional accessibility information or requests, please email admin@playmakerslab.org.

RAP ARGUMENT

By Marquez S, Morton School of Excellence

I believe we should stop rap that involves violence and that involves cursing, dancing.  Last time I watched a video there was too much violence and dancing.  The End.

HOMELESS

By Antonio R, Morton School of Excellence

I think homeless people should have homes because they should have somewhere to go.  Also live in a shelter.  And why because if that were you you [would] want somewhere to live.

And I know if it was a family member or stranger you should help them as well as if it was you if they ask for money just give it to he or she or if you don’t have any money just say you have something he or she.

Homeless people need jobs [in] order to not be homeless and if people give them jobs they will not be homeless and won’t be seeing any homeless people any more.  The End.  Catch you later.

EL VIAJE A MEXICO

By Rudy M, Marquette School of Excellence

Yo quiero cambiarme de ciudad por que mi abuelita vive en Mexico.  Mi mama y mi papa me pueden ayudar a ir comprando me un boleto de avion para Mexico. Yo quiero ir con mi para ayudarla lo que necesita, como para ir al mercado para cargar las cosas pesadas como la carne el mais Y para jugar con mis primo que ya tengo mucho que no los veo y le digo a mi mama que si puedo ir a mexico y me dice que espere un rato. Y le digo que por favor, y me pongo de rodillas.  Fin

WANTING MEATLOAF

By by Montez P, Jayzoun N, James M, Emmanuel L, Kristyle Y, Reyna J, and Fayome M, Dixon Elementary School

Once there was a boy named Jackson who craved meatloaf with nothing else. He hangs out in a mansion that has a pool table, a pool, bunk beds, and a club with a bar. He lays in bed cause he is so sad about the meatloaf. He wishes for meatloaf. He wishes so much he falls asleep. He wakes up it appears by itself. He eats some and he loves it. All he does is eat meatloaf all day. His therapist named Bob tells him to stop eating it, he doesn’t listen and wakes up with a meatloaf head! He sings the meatloaf song* and the meatloaf head disappears. The End

*THE MEAT LOAF SONG: I would do anything for meatloaf, But I won’t do that OH! I won’t do that!

TACO VS SQUASH

By by Jose P, Jared N, Jeremiah P, Matthew H, and Kymira S, Marquette School of Excellence

We believe that tacos are better than squash. Our first reason is that tacos have more delicious meaty flavor than squash. Our second reason is that tacos are crunchier than squash and eating crunchy things makes us feel good. Our third reason is that you can customize them, you can add vegetables, meat, whatever you want. Also, we think tacos would definitely beat squash in a fight or boxing match-the tacos are faster at punching. In conclusion, we believe that tacos are better than squash.  The End

THE ZOO

By by Nakevia M, Paderewski Elementary Learning Academy

It was Saturday and my Grandma took me to the zoo and we went to go see the lion and my brother kept messing with the lion so the lion opened the cage and started to chase us and everybody else too. 50 people had got eaten in less than 1 minute. We went to hide under the elephants cage so the lion won’t see us and everybody was screaming the next two minutes it was bones everywhere but no people. When we came out the elephants cage the lion was gone and so was all the animals. My brother said dang the lion was hungry and we went home.  The End

ALIENS ON THE MOON

By by D’Angelo J, New Sullivan Elementary School

I was an alien stopping other aliens from breaking the moon in half but they already got there. And I tried to save my mom who was in a hotel on the moon.  I made a gadget to make her come back but she didn’t.  She stayed because the fun hotel had a big water balloon in the sky.  I popped it with the gadget and came back with me. The End

CHICKEN!!!

By by Danielle S, Leo B, Maggie J, and Shantelle G, Lincolnwood Elementary School

Dear Neil Armstrong, we are king monkeys and we believe that chicken should be cheaper. Because we love chicken and don’t have a lot of money. And if it’s not cheaper nobody will buy chicken and stores will go out of business. Because we love to party, and everybody loves chicken at parties. And we ran out of chicken for chicken muffins, because ninjas took them. If this were to happen there would be less complaints to managers about chicken, and the world would be a better place!!!  The End

CANDY MAN

By by Temo A, Dawes Elementary School

Once there was a man that never ate anything but only candy so then he had to go to the hospital to get surgery but they couldn’t because of all the candy he ate and right when he got home he exploded but the blood didn’t come out it was candy but the next day he back to normal but still eating candy after he ate candy for breakfast he went to Chuck E Cheese’s and after playing a whole hour he went to Burger King but there wasn’t any candy there so he went back home to eat some more candy then he exploded the next day. 
The End.

JOHN CENA MAKES BREAD

By by Ivan M, Lorca Elementary School

John Cena made a lot of bread because his bread making machine was broken. The bread he made tasted bad. People said, “Eww, I want my money back.” So John made more bread, but this time he used sugar and milk and it tasted really good. All the customers said, “I’ll give you $6.00.” “No, I’ll give you $5.00.” “No, $20.00.” “No’ $100.00!” John says, “Yes, I’ll give you all the bread for 1 million dollars!” And he was happy. He used the money to fix the machine. Then, he bought two more machines. The End