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Stages Bloomington brings youth theater to the stage with “Frozen Jr.”

A rehearsal for Stages Bloomington's performance of Frozen Jr.
A rehearsal for Stages Bloomington's performance of Frozen Jr.

Stages Bloomington, the only youth-dedicated theater in south-central Indiana, is keeping the winter weather around a little longer as they prepare for their production of “Frozen Jr.” The show runs from April 21 st through the 23 rd at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in Bloomington.

Stages Bloomington provides theatre-arts education and production classes to children in grades 3-12 across south-central Indiana. The theater originally began as Bloomington Music Works and was a traditional theater for all ages before making its permanent transition to youth theater in 2006.

Inspired by the Disney animated musical of the same name, “Frozen Jr.” tells the story of Elsa, the Snow Queen of Arendelle, who accidentally traps her kingdom in a perpetual winter. Elsa’s sister, Anna, along with her new friends Kristoff and Olaf, must go on a journey to find the queen and bring spring back to the kingdom before it is too late.

Rick Armstrong, Stages’ Executive Director, said the 42 cast members are especially excited for this production as most of the kids grew up watching the classic Disney film and singing along to its iconic songs like “Let It Go.” For Armstrong, these performances are not only an opportunity to help the kids put on a show, they’re also an opportunity to help them find their passions and become patrons of the arts.

For more information on tickets and upcoming classes at Stages Bloomington, visit stagesbloomington.org.

Alex Chambers runs WFIU’s arts desk, and produces and hosts WFIU’s Inner States, a weekly podcast and radio show about arts, culture, and ideas from southern Indiana and beyond. He’s the co-creator of How to Survive the Future, a podcast about the present, produced in partnership with Indiana Humanities. He has a PhD in American Studies, with a dissertation called Climate Violence and the Poetics of Refuge, and a book of poems called Bindings: A Preparation, about domestic life and empire. In his spare time, he teaches audio storytelling at the IU Media School. When he’s not in the woods gathering sound, you might see him out for a run on the streets of Bloomington.