In the fall of 1986, the UIS Performing Arts Center presented the first events in the series inaugurated as Class Acts. Class Acts events were scheduled as field trip performances for K-12 school audiences.
As the years continued, UIS Performing Arts Center staff worked closely with local teacher advisory groups to choose touring performances and build event seasons for Class Acts that could make connections between the performing arts and a range of curricular topics – not just literacy – tailored to specific grade levels. Teacher’s guides for each event provided context, suggested classroom activities, and made content connections with the Illinois Learning Standards so that teachers could extend the learning of the live performance into their classrooms.
Below are titles presented on Staley Class Acts for the past 10 years.
2023-2024
- Nightfall with Edgar Allan Poe
- Experience Folk Dance
- The Rainbow Fish
- Number the Stars
- The Stinky Cheese Man
- Keep Marching
- Finding North
- University of Wonder and Imagination
- Experience Joyful Music wit Dan and Claudia Zanes
- The Boy Who Cried Wolf
- Romeo and Juliet
2022-2023
- Experience Songs of Illinois
- Frindle
- Freedom Flight
- Pete the Cat’s Big Hollywood Adventure
- Experience Rockballet
- And Then They Came for Me
- The Magic School Bus
- It’s Okay to be Different
- ISO Concert for Kids
2021-2022
- Jabari Dreams of Freedom-Streaming
- Rosie Revere Engineer & Friends
- Doktor Kaboom and Wheel of Science
- Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun
- ISO Concert for Kids
2020-2021
- Season Cancelled Due to Covid-19
2019-2020
- Have You Filled A Bucket Today?
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- Walk On: The Story of Rosa Parks
- Abraham Lincoln in Song
- The Snowy Day
- The Magic School Bus
- Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
2018-2019
- Giggle Giggle Quack
- Aesop Bops
- Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad
- The Crucible
- Frindle
- Diary of a Worm, A spider and a Fly
- The Rainbow Fish
- Number the Stars
- ISO-Peter and the Wolf
2017-2018
- The Money Tree
- Freedom Riders
- Doktor Kaboom-LIVE WIRE!
- Charlotte’s Web
- Nugget and Fang
- My heart in a Suitcase
- Curious George
- Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Terror
- ISO Concert for Kids
2016-2017
- Vocalosity
- ISO Concert for Kids
- Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters
- Pete the Cat
- Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
- Junie B.’s Essential Survival Guide
- The Grapes of Wrath
- Doktor Kaboom
- My Mouth is a Volcano
- Biscuit
2015-2016
- Lakota Sioux Dance Theatre
- The Cat in the Hat
- Walk On: The Story of Rosa Parks
- Three Little Birds
- Julius Caesar
- Toying with Science
- Number the Stars
- Kids for President
- Chicken Dance
- ISO Concert for Kids
2014-2015
- The Monster Who Ate My Peas
- Stella, Queen of the Snow
- A Christmas Carol
- The Rainbow Fish
- I have a Dream
- Macbeth
- Schoolhouse Rock Live!
- ISO Concert for Kids
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Spot
