Tickets are On Sale for CELEBRATION OF AUTHORS 2026 on 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
Forward Space
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.
By Celene Sancer, 4th Grade, Jordan
Dialogues
Other Venues
Storefront 2002
Bird: One day the girl bird woke up.
Bird: The bird had laid eggs.
Man: The man was poor. He had no money. So he decided to shoot a bird.
Bird: Went to look for food.
Man: The man saw the bird.
Man: Shot! The Bird went down.
Bird: You hurt me on my wing!
Man: Oh, I’m sorry I’m just hungry.
Bird: You know better than to shoot nature.
Man: I’m sorry.
Bird: Shut up.
Man: Make Me.
Bird: I hate you.
Man: Stop that!
Bird: Can you do something?
Man: Of course.
Bird: Take me with my eggs.
Man: OK
By Guillermo O., Davis Shields (now Columbia Explorers Academy)
That's Weird, Grandma
Gorillas Need to Read
By Guillermo Ortiz Davis-Sheilds
Pro:
1. Will get smart.
2. Read to little kids.
3. Help with homework.
Con:
1. They will tear the books apart.
2. Hit the kids
3. Will tear the homework.
By Victoria R., Jordan
That's Weird, Grandma
It is a clown in the circus his name is Joy and he is sad because he did not study his tricks and the makeup hurt his eye and he is crying. It sting and then get home. He got sick because he eat a lot. His mother made him some soup and he fell asleep and woke up feeling better and he went back to the circus did tricks his tricks was very fun to the people at the end they did a dance.
By Stephen S., Davis Shields (now Columbia Explorers Academy)
That's Weird, Grandma
One day four men joined the Olympics. They compete in canoe races. The men secretly cheat every single race and nobody knew about it. They would make holes in other people’s canoes. Every single trophy became theirs. One day some invisible angels threatened them so they wouldn’t cheat. The next day they didn’t cheat and they lost the race. A sea monster came out of the water and sucked them up, his compliment, “Mmmmmm Tasty!”
By Vanda C., Cleveland
That's Weird, Grandma
Once upon a time there was a big smelly garlic. He had no friends because he smelled. Once he walked around the town of vegetable town people went to their houses and pinch their noses. He was a sad sad garlic. He had no friends. One day he was walking to the pond because the pond was his thinking place. He was sitting down throwing rocks until this shadowy figure pushed garlic into the pond. He was struggling and making gurgling noise. The wind lifted garlic onto the land. The one thing that surprised garlic was that he didn’t smell so bad anymore. So he went back to vegetable town and hug everyone. He told them, “I don’t smell anymore.”
By Alicia B., 4th Grade, Dewey School
Dialogues
That's Weird, Grandma
Once upon a time there were three old men on a cruise. “I’m glad to get away from my wife” said Sherman, “She’s taken my teeth every day this week.”
“Man you just think you’ve got it bad! My granddaughters have be giving me the blues!” said Rosam.
“Well, I have it good no granddaughters or any wives.”
By Jaiquan H., 3rd Grade, Henderson
Songs
Podcasts
That's Weird, Grandma
Celebration of Authors
COA 2007
Some Time you might get Body Slammed and you might Challenge him again and you might win This Time and you might challenge SomeBody and you might win The Belt and you will Be The Word Champion and you might go to another City and vs. another challenge.
Listen to the podcast episode adapted from this story!
By Diamond L., 4th Grade, Stockton
That's Weird, Grandma
Once upon a time me and my BFF Jazmiir were doing a science project on how to make a robot. We built it and it was a made robot. It cleaned. We did it in Spanish class. So we worked for 1 year to see if we could make the best robot. When we got to 7th period we just colored it blue so it could look fabulous. It did look fab-u-lus!! So Mrs. Erlene our Spanish teacher gave us A+ A+ A+. So we won and got it published but they were 7,000,000,000, dollars. No one can afford it.
By Ruby, Brayan, Herber, Erick, Kishaly, Esma, Stephani, 4th Grade, Avondale
That's Weird, Grandma
Once upon a time there was a magician. He was evil when it came to magic. He had a dog who protects him. He had an enemy that was good. The Bad Magician’s dog could talk. The Bad Magician would kill people. He killed a girl. Then, the Good Magician brought the girl back to life with his powers. The way the evil magician killed her was with a cup of poison. The Good Magician came out of the fireplace and rescued her. Then, the bad magician used a crystal to become more powerful. The Bad Magician’s Dog killed the Good Magician’s Cat. The Good Magician got mad and took away the powers of the Bad Magician, so he couldn’t do evil anymore. The Bad Magician went to sleep for one minute, but the Good Magician thought he was dead.
By Emma, Loyola Park After School Program
True Stories
That's Weird, Grandma
Last year at my school on kids day (wich is usally the worst day of my life.) I was hot and every game I playing I didn’t get a prize except for a lame necklace I got Just because I played a game. Then I went to the piñata it was our turn to hit the piñata I knew something bad was going to happen like the year before when me and a girl in my class were looking for our teacher every where in the school and it turned out she was outside the whole time and we missed the piñata and didn’t get any candy except for the left overs that people didn’t like (wich I didnn’t like either.) so I knew something bad was going to happen and I was right! It started out when we all lined up (behind the line so we wouldn’t get hurt) and I was in the middle so I knew someone was gonna hit it and break it before I would even get a chance and so a kid named Jack in my class hit it nothing happened then this really chubby, short, strong tomboy in my class got up there and the stick was really long and before I knew it she hit the stick to the piñatas, the stick broke in half and come flying and hit me in the head!
My teacher caught me just before I hit the ground and rushed me into the office we kept on trying to call my mom but we could not reach her so they almost had to take me to the ambulyence but we finnaly she ansered her phone and came to pick me up and that night I went to the Hospital to get it glued together.
