Westmont’s BAMtheatre to host free Block Party celebrating new center’s first year
BAMtheatre, a Westmont-based youth theater conservatory, will celebrate the first year of its new Performing Arts Facility building with the annual BAM Block Party on Saturday, May 30.
Opened in May 2025, the state-of-the-art facility was custom built in an old bank building and includes a 191-seat theater, a professional-grade dance studio, spacious rehearsal rooms, a wing of studios for private instruction, and more. Community members of all ages are invited to tour this exceptional space during the block party and have fun in the parking lot where food trucks, a beer tent, games, and activities will be held.
Every hour on the half-hour one of BAM’s nationally recognized conservatory competition teams will entertain guests with an excerpt from their award-winning competition performance.
BAM Block Party will be 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 30, at the BAM Performing Arts Facility, 520 N. Cass Ave. in Westmont. Attendance is free and no prior registration is required.
The BAM Block Party marks the end of a remarkable 25th anniversary season for the company. The new building allowed BAM to expand offerings, bringing high-level theatrical education to more students than ever before.
Additionally, BAM’s grade school, middle school, and high school-aged competitive conservatory ensembles each achieved the highest-level awards available, competing against other ensembles from across the world at the National Performing Arts Festival, Junior Theater Festival West, and Junior Theater Festival Atlanta, respectively, this season.
“Having all three ensembles win top-level awards this season is not only a testament to the dedication of our students, but also the culmination of BAMtheatre’s quarter-century history of artistic excellence,” said Melanie Lamoureux, artistic director of BAMtheatre. “This year’s BAM Block Party is an invitation to our community in the Western Suburbs and the greater Chicagoland theater community to come celebrate all we have accomplished in our first 25 seasons, and all we will accomplish in our next 25 seasons in our beautiful building.”
Additionally, registration is now open for BAMtheatre’s robust summer offerings. Alongside two fully produced productions, BAM offers over 30 sessions of summer camps open to kids from toddlers to teens.
BAMtheatre Summer Camps are one to two-week half-day camps that culminate in a performance of a 30- or 60-minute reduced version of a popular musical. Broadway Tots camps are one week camps with daily 45-minute sessions for kids up to age 5. Broadway Kids Summer Edition takes place over the course of the entire summer. It culminates in a production of “The SpongeBob Musical: Youth Edition,” with performances between July 30 and Aug. 8. It is open to students in grades K-9.
BAM’s mainstage summer production is open to performers in high school and college. This year’s production will be “Urinetown” performed July 9-12.
About BAMtheatre
BAMtheatre is a Chicago area performing arts organization dedicated to developing confident, collaborative, and highly trained young artists. Through conservatory-level instruction, small class sizes, and immersive performance opportunities, students receive individualized coaching in voice, acting, and movement while cultivating discipline, empathy, and leadership. For information, visit bamtheatre.com