Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Pinas.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, I had two great passions: musical theater and babies. By the time I started high school, I had my future career path narrowed down to two options. I either wanted to become a neonatologist or an actress. Ultimately, musical theatre won and I attended New York University (Steinhardt) where I received a Bachelor’s of Music with a specialization in Musical Theatre. Throughout my time in New York, I still found ways to work with children. I babysat, volunteered at children’s hospitals, and performed in American Girl Place Theater’s Bitty Bear’s Matinee.
Right after I graduated, I was hired by a children’s theater company in NYC to teach classes and perform at Birthday Parties. I figured it was the perfect part time job to pay the bills while I auditioned. Within 6 months, it was my full-time job and my chosen profession. I accepted a position as the company’s Party & Events Coordinator and spent the next few years planning and executing over 300 parties and events a year in addition to teaching sold out classes each week.
In 2012, I made the decision to move back home to Chicago. What I noticed when I returned was that there were a lot of classes for children but none that sought to engage and entertain both adults and children and none that centered around what I loved most: Broadway! I decided to start my own program here in Chicago but wanted to do it right. If I was going to develop classes and a curriculum, it wasn’t enough to know what worked. I needed to know why it worked. The next step was obvious. I attended the renown Erikson Institute here in Chicago and earned a M.S. in Child Development focusing on infancy and administration. In July of 2016, using money I had saved during Grad School to fund the startup costs, I officially launched Stages Performing Arts.
Has it been a smooth road?
The greatest struggle I’ve faced thus far has been balance. As someone who chose to self-fund my business rather than seek out a business loan or financial backing, I had to continue working at my day job to pay my bills while I got Stages up and running. Up until a month ago, I was working 40 hours a week as the Arts Director at an early childhood center in addition to teaching every class that Stages offered and running the business side. My idea of a day off is sitting on the couch catching up on QuickBooks or updating my website while I watch tv. Thanks to the growth that Stages has experienced in the past few months, I have been able to cut back to part time hours at my day job but I still struggle with a never ending to do list and wondering if I’m doing enough.
So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Stages Performing Arts story. Tell us more about the business.
Stages Performing Arts offers Broadway themed classes, camps, birthday parties, and special event entertainment for children ages 2mo to 12yrs. We specialize in creating musical theater experiences that are entertaining, interactive, and developmentally appropriate.
The thing we’re most known for is our infant/toddler music class, Broadway & Me which combines the best elements of traditional baby music classes: toys, instruments, bubbles, and puppets with live music and a team of professional teaching artists who bring the songs and stories of Broadway musicals to life.
The thing that I am most proud of is the ability Stages has to engage entire families. It’s common for grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other adults to tag along to Broadway & Me. We’re regularly told by families that the adults love coming to class just as much (and maybe even more) than their little ones do.
What sets us apart from other companies is that Stages engages children in developmentally appropriate ways without sacrificing what we believe is quality musical theater. We strongly resist the notion that the only way for a music class to be developmentally appropriate is to sing “kid songs”. You’ll see this not only in our infant/toddler classes but in Broadway Little Stars where preschoolers are introduced to a new Broadway musical each week through interactive storytelling, dramatic play, music, and dance as well as in our Broadway Stars classes where children (Gr. K-6) are able to learn the fundamentals of performing by working on scenes and songs from actual Broadway musicals which they perform onstage at a professional Chicago theater in our Stages Finale.
Rather than being a theater company that supplements its main stage productions with classes, camps, and parties, we focus exclusively on those elements, prioritizing small teaching artist to child ratios and the more interactive and personalized experiences that allows.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I think over the next 5-10 years you are going to see this idea of teaching artists continue to grow and be further professionalized. The arts community is making huge strides in dispelling the notion that those who can’t do, teach. They’re empowering those who “do” to also teach and as a result, more and more children have access to high quality early arts experiences. The next step in all of this is finding ways to train arts professionals to work with children and create developmentally appropriate curriculum. It’s no longer a question of talented performer or talented teacher, parents are going to begin to expect both.
Contact Info:
- Website: stageschicago.com
- Phone: (630)967-8463
- Email: info@stageschicago.com
- Instagram: @stagschi
- Facebook: @stageschicago
- Twitter: @stageschi
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