All-of-us Express Children’s Theatre to End Partnership With East Lansing, Moving to Lansing

After 15 years of operating in partnership with the City of East Lansing, All-of-us Express Children’s Theatre is migrating to Lansing amid concerns over the future of parks and recreation programming in East Lansing.

The move from East Lansing’s Hannah Community Center to 5206 West Saginaw Suite A1 in Lansing presents a much needed opportunity to expand programming, All-of-us Express Children’s Theatre Board of Trustees member Jen VanDerHeide told East Lansing Info.

Half the children interested in participating in productions are being turned away due to capacity restraints, which has presented problems with keeping kids in the program and allowing new groups of kids to participate, VanDerHeide said.

“The Hannah, just especially with the third floor not being renovated, there’s just only so many spaces available, and they have a lot of other programs there too, that have permanent spaces or rent out spaces across all the recreation programs,” VanDerHeide said. “The space they have to build sets is a stage in the auxiliary gym…it’s hard to leave materials behind… that auxiliary gym gets used for all the other programs… There’s also open gym going on at the same time… those are not people that we have vetted in any way and sometimes there’s incidents on the gym floor, and that can be a little concerning for our kids.”

An email announcement sent out by the All-of-us Express Children’s Theatre Board of Trustees to members of the organization earlier this month said due to the public nature of the Hannah Community Center, property of the theater has been stolen. The announcement added that in competing for space with other recreational programming, the children’s theater has had its room reservations and stage reservations dropped last-minute leaving theater staff scrambling.

“Change is always exciting and stressful. Many of us have watched our children grow up in the spaces in the Hannah Center, and it will be hard to say goodbye,” the email announcement reads. “More than that, though, we are excited to be able to enter our next phase of growth in our own space: a space where we can sing in the hallways without worry we’re interrupting other activities, a space that we can access whenever we want.”

There is increasing demand for theater in the Greater Lansing Area, Interim Director of Parks, Recreation and Arts for the City of East Lansing Justin Drwencke told ELi. So while the city has appreciated the long-standing partnership, Drwencke said, the city is committed to communicating with the All-of-us Express Children’s Theatre Board of Trustees to ensure a smooth transition as they go to their new space.

“It’s definitely been a good partnership and I’m sad to see them go, but I am also excited that they have an opportunity to expand their space and expand their programming,”  Drwencke said. “At the end of the day, it sounds like they’re making a decision that’s going to be best for the program, and I do support that, because at the end of the day, I care about the participants in the program having a good experience.”

All-of-us Express Children’s Theatre had been looking at alternative spaces since the summer of 2025, VanDerHeide said, but the announcement of a proposed property tax millage to fund the East Lansing Parks, Recreation & Arts Department amid financial turbulence in the city, spurred the organization to action.

That parks millage failed in the 2025 November election, with more than 61% of voters voting against it.

It’s too soon to say what the millage failure will mean for the parks department and what future programming will look like, Drwencke said. But East Lansing’s new Financial Health Review Committee, a group of community volunteers focused on coming up with solutions to the city’s financial woes, presents a welcome opportunity to help navigate that future, Drwencke said.

“I think there’s a lot of different levels of fears and anxiety around what this is going to mean for parks and recreation,” Drwencke said. “I think we’ll get some more clarity on if we will need to make operational adjustments. But… anything that I would say right now, it would be purely speculation. I think there’s just too many moving parts and pieces.”

The new All-of-us Express Children’s Theatre location, which the theatre hopes to move to by mid-May in time to host their summer auditions and summer camps, is located near the Lansing Mall, about a 20 minute drive from the Hannah Community Center. VanDerHeide said the new location isn’t expected to pose significant logistical challenges for family’s participation as kids participate from all over the Greater Lansing Area, including kids from Haslett, Okemos, DeWitt, Grand Ledge and Laingsburg.

It’s very much a Mid-Michigan program, VanDerHeide said, and it’s come a long way in more than three decades of operation, having initially been run out of the founder’s basement.