The Pied Piper of Children’s Theater makes every kid feel special  

The Pied Piper of young thespians, Gigi Hudson has come full circle in her theatrical journey. As a child, she played old albums of musicals such as the Wizard of Oz, Oliver and The Sound of Music and acted out every part in the solitude of her bedroom. She now has hundreds of children to act with and, better yet, to direct.  

As owner of the Actors Garden in Oak Park since 2009, Hudson has encouraged generations of children to express themselves and to appreciate their own creativity —and, perhaps most importantly, to find their tribe.  

“There is an energy about children that is fresh and genuine. I just love their joy,” Hudson said.   

Hudson grew up as the youngest of four siblings in Omaha, Nebraska. She didn’t seriously pursue theater until her sophomore year at the University of Nebraska, where she acknowledges that she drove her dorm mates crazy playing Broadway musicals—constantly and loudly.  

“I think back on that, and I want to apologize to everyone in my dorm,” she said, laughing.  

She honed her acting chops by performing in small workshops and studio productions in storefront theaters, which are still her favorite theatrical venues. Following college, Hudson performed in a dinner theater production of Grease in Omaha and met a group of professional actors who encouraged her to go to New York — she chickened out several times before making the leap.   

Her first job in the big city wasn’t glamorous — she nannied for a wealthy family on Central Park South — but it afforded her the opportunity to see matinees every Wednesday.  

“The first show I saw was Song and Dance with Bernadette Peters. She came on stage wearing a jacket that had “Nebraska” written on it — in the play, she has just moved to New York and her boyfriend is from Nebraska. I just lost it. I’m sure the woman sitting next to me couldn’t understand why I was sobbing,” Hudson said.  

Later, as a production secretary for PBS’s Great Performances series, she got a behind-the-scenes peak at professional theater and met some of her heroes, including Beverly Sills and Gregory Hines. She was making acting inroads in small productions when she met her future husband Dave and decided to move back with him to the Midwest when he got a scholarship to Stephens College in Missouri.  

While it was hard to leave New York, the mecca for stage performers, it was in Missouri that she discovered her love for teaching and directing other actors, which she did for a community theater. Hudson followed her husband to Oak Park in the mid-90s when he got a job with Goodman Theater. She later also landed a job there that gave her the chance to watch several masters at work, including esteemed director Mary Zimmerman, whose creativity and dedication to storytelling still inspires her.  

Hudson’s first foray into Oak Park children’s theater was with the Village Players. In 2002, she established the children’s theater school at Open Door Repertory. 

Hudson launched Actors Garden as her own full-time theater school in 2009 and opened her current studio in the Harrison Street arts district in 2015. The program now offers full-year programming, including after-school and weekend classes and workshops as well as a vibrant (and often sold-out) summer camp at Dominican University. In addition to classes in introduction to theater, musical theater, production and acting on-camera, Hudson recently debuted an innovative Dungeons and Dragons class that provides a deep dive into character development and an improvisation class for neurodivergent teens and adults. She estimated that she works with about 120 children every semester and more than 150 children in the summer. 

The keys to the school’s success are Hudson’s boundless energy and contagious positivity. She focuses on the process of theater as much as the product. 

Sarah Jansen said she appreciates Hudson’s insights and investment in each of her students as well as the safe place she provides for them to express themselves. Her daughter Luca is a current student at the school. 

“Gigi truly sees every student’s potential and makes each child feel like they are playing an important part of a production, no matter their role. Luca has found her people through Actors Garden, which was such as gift after we moved here from Riverside,” Jansen said.  

Ann Bath has two children, Alice and Charlie, who have been involved in the school since 2021. Her daughter has decided to seriously pursue her passion for theater and Bath attributes this to Hudson’s influence. A student at Roosevelt Middle School, Alice is currently training with the Paramount School of the Arts and will perform in a production of Mean Girls this summer.  

“We feel so blessed that Alice has had Gigi as a mentor at this stage of her development because, as a pre-teen, it can get pretty hairy. Gigi is such a bright light in her life,” said Bath.  

Meredith McGuire, the choir director at OPRF, has two sons in Actors Garden. She said she witnessed Hudson’s magic when she sat in a tech rehearsal in 2019.  

“I was profoundly blown away during that rehearsal. Gigi gives 120% to each of her students. Actors Garden is everything a children’s theater school should be,” McGuire said.  

Although Hudson has had several notable students who, like Tavi Gevenson, have gone on to professional acting careers, she insists that her goal is more modest.  

“At the end of the day, I feel successful knowing that there are students who have gone on to have happy, creative lives and who have fond memories of their experience with Actors Garden,” she said.  

Kiki Sikora, an Actors Garden graduate who is studying theater at Northwestern University, is a testament to Hudson’s mission. 

“Gigi has inspired and deepened my love for theater. Her positive reinforcement has given me the self-confidence to act professionally. But my goal is to create art in my life, whatever that may mean. Theater is a way of uplifting people and Gigi is a wonderful example of that,” Sikora said.