New Children’s Play Helps Promote Diversity, Discussion

A new play at the Chicago Children’s Theatre is making a difference by helping to promote diversity.

The play, titled “My Wonderful Birthday Suit,” speaks openly and honestly about skin color, the theatre says, and it hopes to engage young audience members to embrace their differences.

“The skin, this is our birthday suit,” playwright Glorida Bond Clunie says. “We are all born with a wonderful birthday suit, but somewhere along the way people get notions, ideas that take away from its beauty.”

The show is geared toward children ages four to seven, and encourages kids to celebrate their differences.

“(It’s) just the idea of celebrating these things out loud, our differences out loud,” actress Darci Nalepa says. “We are not the same, but this is me, this is you, and let’s all live together.”

The actors and producers involved in the play hope that educators will use the show’s message to encourage dialogue about issues involving race and other differences.

“I think that all parents, all educators need to start thinking about these things and find ways to talk to our children about them,” Chicago Children’s Theatre co-founder Jacqueline Russell says.