Regional Touring Theatre Company

The Western Illinois University Regional Touring Theatre Company (RTTC), established in 1974, has presented more than 3200 productions of 74 plays to more than 800,000 elementary school students throughout Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. The RTTC performs primarily for grade schools but also performs in community centers and libraries. Each fall and spring, a professional company of graduate student actors creates innovative theatre that is sure to instruct, involve, inspire, and entertain hundreds of elementary and junior high school children in the tri-state region.

The RTTC performs stories designed to enlighten, entertain and educate students. The stories are from popular children's literature, fairy tales, or are stories written specifically for the RTTC. Through music, dance, colorful costumes, props and scenery, as well as humorous and interesting dialogue, the programs deal with a variety of issues from the traditional "moral of a story" in a fairy tale, such as honesty, loyalty and kindness to more contemporary social issues. The goal of the RTTC is to give schools and teachers an opportunity to use theatre as a way to enhance their cultural arts curriculum and to explore and discuss the issues from the play in the classroom.

In May 1999, the Illinois Alliance for Arts Education awarded the RTTC the annual recognition award for RTTC's outstanding contributions to the arts in Illinois. Founding Director of the RTTC, Eugene Kozlowski, has won several national awards for his adaptations of traditional fairy tales and children's stories for the Regional Touring Theatre Company. His play, Rumpelstiltskin, won first place in the Kansas City Children's Theatre competition in 1990 and enjoyed a two-year tour in that city. Nine of his original plays were performed on public television in 1992-93.