Every performer has a place at IAA, the high produ...

Every performer has a place at IAA, the high production values of their many shows and staff of working actors makes this a perfect place for students who desire to be working theatre professionals. The costume, set, etc designers are all local professionals and final performances are at Stage 773 (big shows are at The Thrust , which holds 150+ patrons), one of the most popular venues for live performance in the whole city (again, according to some metric I can t remember, Chicago is the 2nd biggest theatre city in the U.S after NYC, for scale!). Yet, rehearsals at IAA are incredibly low pressure, even auditions are pretty non competitive, as everyone gets a role in the show and Ms. Dana puts a lot of time and effort into selecting roles that an actor may not see themselves in, but that will do the most to help them learn and grow as a performer and a person.
The community at IAA is incredible, Ms. Dana, Ms. Kara and the entire staff are amazing at providing you everything you need to succeed inside and outside the performance realm. I have also met some of the smartest, kindest, hardest working people in the world. It is so common for teenagers in particular to be super competitive and catty in a theatre environment (the diva cliche) as well as on social media, but I have experienced very little of that from my cast mates. Rather, I recently followed one of my cast mates from our June 2019 production of Les Mis on Instagram, where she made 2-3 sentence specific compliments about each of 37+ members of our cast.
I have only done 2 IAA shows as of today, but I would recommend anyone try it out. Going into my senior year of high school, I see that my experiences here have shaped a lot of what I want in life and have set me up to succeed. Join our cult!
Thank you IAA
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