Building Joy, Empathy, and Resilience Through Creative Play
Posted on September 24, 2025
For nearly a decade, Children’s Theatre Company has been developing Creative Play, a curriculum that uses theatre foundations as a joyful and practical tool for building empathy, resilience, and social-emotional skills in young children. The program—led by Johanna Gorman-Baer and the Education Team at CTC—has grown into a structured, trauma-informed model supporting kids, families, and teachers alike. We recently sat down with Johanna to talk about how the program began, how it has evolved, and the impact it’s having today.
Why Theatre Skills Matter in Early Childhood
At its heart, theatre and creative play are all about connection. When a toddler looks at a partner’s face and guesses how they’re feeling, they’re practicing both acting and empathy. When a preschooler crouches down to play a mouse—small, quiet, quick—they’re learning how to communicate with both body and voice. These seemingly small moments of play help children build tools they’ll use for a lifetime: expressing themselves, noticing others, and navigating big emotions.
A Trauma-Informed Approach
Children today are growing up in a world where uncertainty and stress are part of daily life. Our Creative Play Program acknowledges this reality by equipping teaching artists with trauma-informed practices. Our team is trained to recognize the somatic cues that signal when a child is overwhelmed and to gently guide them back to a place of safety and joy.
Growing With Children and Families
Creative Play now serves children from infancy through kindergarten. In the past couple of years, we’ve expanded to include caregiver-and-child classes that nurture adults alongside their children, giving families new ways to connect through play. Classes use music, puppetry, storytelling, and games as entry points to big ideas like resilience, confidence, and cooperation.
Partnerships That Deepen Impact
Creative Play thrives because of the organizations we partner with. Recent partnerships include:
- Rainbow Child Development Center has collaborated with CTC teaching artists over the years to expand the Creative Play curriculum to include infant classes, reaching even our youngest learners.
- Bethune Arts Elementary has partnered with us for multiple years, demonstrating the power of deep, long-term engagement.
- Kinderberry Hill has shown how even short-term partnerships can spark joy, creativity, and social growth.
Whether it’s a single joyful workshop or a multi-year residency, Creative Play meets organizations in our community where they are.
Looking Ahead
The vision for Creative Play continues to grow. We’re building a comprehensive, age-by-age curriculum that can be shared more widely with organizations and educators. We’re also investing in more partnerships that not only enrich children’s lives but also provide parents and teachers with tools for resilience and connection.
At its core, Creative Play is about more than theatre—it’s about helping children become empathetic, confident, and connected humans. And we believe that’s work worth celebrating.