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 Nicholas W., Henderson School
True Stories
It’s a bad day. I was walking from school with my brother. He was playing and he pushed me. I fell in a lot of glass and my cousin picked me up and walked me home. And my mama put some water on it, took me to the hospital. I had eight stitches. I feel hurt. My brother was sorry and said that he didn’t mean to do it. He said that he would make it up to me. He did-he was there for me when I needed help. The end.
By Joshua H., Henderson School
True Stories
One day I went with my mom and I bought a big bottle of popcorn. And we went back to the house and we went nuts. And we throw popcorn in the air and we caught some popcorn in our mouth. And then we went and bought some more popcorn. And I went crazy and I was hyper because it was sweet popcorn. My dad threw popcorn at my face he ran out the house. And then he came back in and he threw popcorn at his face and he was so mad. And he throw some more popcorn and we had a popcorn fight. And he had another popcorn fight and I won. Ding ding ding! The winner is Joshua Aaaa!
By Tyesha D., Henderson School
True Stories
One day I was watching Dream Girls and all of a sudden my TV cut off and I turned it back on and it was back on, and my screen was green. Then my baby brother started crying. My mom started screaming. My granddad was cooking. I went to the bathroom and there was no toilet. Then I said, “Mom, there’s no toilet!” Next, my upstairs neighbor came downstairs and said, “Can I use your bathroom?” I said, “No, there’s no toilet.” Then her eyes were read. Mom’s were green, Granddad’s were purple, and my baby brother’s were all white. Then I was cross eyed. Du Du Du Duuuu. Next thing you know everything was back to normal. I said, “Mom, I had the most horrible dream.” Then I went back to sleep.
By Carron L, Alexis P, DeAngelo S, Mister, Darius, Henderson School
In my perfect world there would be lots of toys. And lots of learning. And listening. In my perfect world we would be able to ride bikes. In my perfect world there would be lots of games. In my perfect world everyone would have a good report card.
-Carron L.
Our perfect world…
-we would have a big old house
-we could ride scooters everywhere we want
-we’ll be rich
-we could go to the beach whenever we want to
-we can ride down the mountain
-I can work in a store anytime I want
-people would treat each other right
-we could go like Speedman
-we could have a rock band-we’ll all wear rock and roll costumes and we’ll all have spiky mohawks.
-people could play with each other-football, basketball, and baseball
-we eat pizza and root beer soda every day
-we could sleep in a pool anytime we want to
-we could be in a hot tub when we get dirty
-we could paint the city and be best friends
-DeAngelo, Mister, Darius
Girls can play football. Not just tag football, but all kinds of football. I believe girls can play football. My first reason is if they like football, they should be able to play it. My second reason is girls are as good at footballs as boys. My third reason is some girls are faster then boys. In my perfect world, girls can play football.
-Alexis P.
By Breana R., Henderson School
Superheroes
Super Chicken had the best power ever.
By Terrel G., Henderson School
The aliens threw everything in the sewers. They threw a squirrel, an octopus, a toaster. And the aliens threw a chair. And they threw a baby in the sewer. The sewer is radioactive. The objects get mutated. They all get weird and stuff. They all start talking in the sewer. They get the aliens back for throwing them in the sewer. They go up on land to find the aliens. The octopus eats the aliens and the world was saved from the aliens. The mutated objects went back to the sewer. The end.
By Gilbert A., Henderson School
There was a preacher named Father Jackson calling another preacher on the phone. He says, “Father Ginger I need a ride. I’m fixin’ to go to my daughter’s house to get the car keys so I don’t have to call nobody to go home.” Father Ginger says, “I’ll met you back at my church.” Father Jackson says, “OK, see you later.”
Father Ginger went back to a farm when his preaching was over and he saw three baby cows with price tags on them, and he says, “I wonder if they’re on sale so I could get one for Father Jackson.” Then he went to the owner to ask. The farmer says, “Yes they are. The cows come with a vehicle so you can leave and take the cows home and then get your car back later.”
Father Jackson gets a big cow and he took it for a ride. He saw Father Ginger with his cow and says, “Put your cow in the trunk and let’s for a ride.” They find Father Jackson’s daughter Crystal and Together they went to McDonalds and they eat chicken nuggets and sandwiches.
By Antonio H., Henderson School
That's Weird, Grandma
One day when I was outside going to school with my coat and book bag on, something happened. My coat started to fly in the air and then I tried to chase it but I kept on running but it was gone in the fog. And then I flew in the air and I caught it, and somebody said, “Who was flying in the air?”
By Danah D., Henderson School
Once upon a time there was three people. They eated the same thing and lived in the same house. And two fo them have gray hair the last one do not. But all was 79 years old. And they named Max and Bill and Bob. They was a little poor. But one day Max, Bill and Bob found a house. It had three bedroom too and no one was there so they looked around and they all said nice. And it had lots of food and they lived in that house for one month and someone came in and said that is my house not yours. “No it is not” Bill said. Bill was the youngest one by five minutes. And Bill was very trustworthy as well. And the man said fine and he left. The End.
By Lanekia, Kila, Marquise, Dewey School
Once upon a time there lived two pink and blue rabbits named Mike and GD. They lived in a cotton candy world filled with milk and cookies and bubblegum on the other side. They saw a house made of cookie bricks. They went inside. It was the house of a pencil named Kila. Kila was skinny as can be. She loved to chew bubblegum. She was friends with GD and said, “What up.” He was like, “This is my friend MKL.” They all went downstairs to the shopping market and bought three chains that said “GKL”. They all lived together and became best friends.
