BAMtheatre – a premier Chicagoland youth theater conservatory – will celebrate the one-year anniversary of its new Performing Arts Facility building with the annual BAM Block Party on Saturday, May 30. Opened in May 2025, the state-of-the-art facility was custom built in an old bank building and includes a 191-seat theater, a professional-grade dance studio, spacious rehearsal rooms, a wing of studios for private instruction, and more. Community members of all ages are invited to tour this exceptional space during the block party and have fun in the parking lot where food trucks, a beer tent, games, and activities will be held. Every hour on the half-hour one of BAM’s nationally recognized conservatory competition teams will entertain guests with an excerpt from their award-winning competition performance. BAM Block Party is Saturday, May 30, from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the BAM Performing Arts Facility, 520 N Cass Ave. in Westmont, IL. Attendance is free and no prior registration is required.
The BAM Block Party marks the end of a remarkable 25th Anniversary Season for the company. The new building allowed BAM to expand offerings, bringing high-level theatrical education to more students than ever before. Additionally, BAM’s grade school, middle school, and high school-aged competitive conservatory ensembles each achieved the highest-level awards available, competing against other ensembles from across the world at the National Performing Arts Festival, Junior Theater Festival West, and Junior Theater Festival Atlanta, respectively, this season.
“Having all three ensembles win top-level awards this season is not only a testament to the dedication of our students, but also the culmination of BAMtheatre’s quarter-century history of artistic excellence,” said Melanie Lamoureux, Artistic Director of BAMtheatre. “This year’s BAM Block Party is an invitation to our community in the Western Suburbs and the greater Chicagoland theater community to come celebrate all we have accomplished in our first 25 seasons, and all we will accomplish in our next 25 seasons in our beautiful building.”
Beyond the BAM Block Party, BAM’s busy 2026 Spring season is well underway. In addition to ongoing classes in acting, dance, music, and technical theater at BAM’s Performing Arts Facility and after-school enrichment classes taught at partner schools in the area, BAM will present three fully produced musical productions this Spring as part of the Broadway Kids programs. Youth in grades K-3 will present Cinderella from April 17-26; youth in grades 3-6 will present Legally Blonde Jr. from April 30 – May 16; and teens in grades 7-12 will present Freaky Friday The Musical from April 6 – 12. For tickets and more information about the Broadway Kids and Broadway Teens programs available here.
Registration is now open for BAMtheatre’s robust summer offerings. In addition to two fully produced productions, BAM offers over 30 sessions of summer camps open to kids from toddlers to teens. BAMtheatre Summer Camps are one to two-week half-day camps that culminate in a performance of a 30 or 60 minute reduced version of a popular musical. Broadway Tots camps are one week camps with daily 45 minute sessions for kids 0-5 years old. Broadway Kids Summer Edition takes place over the course of the entire summer and culminates in a production of The SpongeBob Musical: Youth Edition, with performances between July 30 and August 8 and is open to students in grades K-9. BAM’s mainstage summer production is open to performers in high school and college. This year’s production will be Urinetown performed July 9-12. More information on BAM’s summer offerings is available here. Auditions for the mainstage production are May 17-20; registration for all other summer camps & SpongeBob is now open. Early registration is recommended, as the programs often fill up before the beginning of summer.
BAMtheatre’s flagship program BAM Conservatory Ensemble (BCE), with BCE Jr., and BCE Prep for younger students, is a yearlong program designed to give students focused conservatory-style training in acting, dance, music, and more alongside professional development classes. These programs culminate in both a performance at one of the national youth theater competitions where they routinely place amongst the top performers in the nation, and a fully produced performance at home in the spring. Auditions for next season’s conservatory ensembles will be held in August. More information on the conservatory ensembles can be found here.
About BAMtheatre
BAMtheatre is a premier Chicagoland performing arts organization dedicated to developing confident, collaborative, and highly trained young artists. Through conservatory-level instruction, small class sizes, and immersive performance opportunities, students receive individualized coaching in voice, acting, and movement while cultivating discipline, empathy, and leadership. BAMtheatre is committed to producing not only exceptional performers — but exceptional humans.
For more information, visit bamtheatre.com