Lights!
House lights dim.
Spotlight up.
Curtain ready.
Welcome.
Come inside.
The curtain is rising….
There is something wonderful waiting in the wings.
A song. A story. A little rhythmic movement.
An invitation to imagine.
And a stage waiting for its youngest stars.
I’m Cathleen Condon Rees, lovingly known as Ms. CeCe.
I believe the most meaningful play begins with an invitation.
We set the stage. We offer the beginning. And then—we make room for the children to take it somewhere entirely their own.
Here, children are the authors, the directors, and the stars—imagining, creating, moving, singing, storytelling, and discovering together.
This is Inspired Play™.
And this is where it begins.
Here you’ll find original songs, rhythmic movement, storytelling, games, dramatic play, and hands-on experiences—each one an invitation to begin.
A song may become a story.
A story may become a stage.
A movement may become an adventure.
We offer the beginning.
And then—we make room for the children to imagine, create, and take it somewhere entirely their own.
There is a story behind Ms. CeCe, too.
About the teacher who sets the stage.
Behind the curtain, where theatre and the classroom first found one another.
And Beyond—the experiences, people, and communities that helped shape the journey.
Come a little farther backstage.
At the heart of Ms. CeCe’s work is a simple yet powerful belief: children learn best when they are inspired to play.
For nearly four decades—with meaningful chapters devoted to family along the way—Cathleen Condon Rees has worked in early childhood education, creating experiences that invite young children to imagine, move, wonder, collaborate, and lead.
In the classroom, she was Cathleen or Ms. Cathleen.
The philosophy behind her work had been taking shape for many years.
With an early background in theatre, Cathleen discovered a natural connection between the stage and the early childhood classroom.
Both can begin with anticipation.
With possibility.
With the sense that something wonderful is about to happen.
A teacher might introduce a song, open a story, begin a rhythm, or offer an invitation that sparks a child’s curiosity.
Then comes the most important part:
The children take it from there.
They invent.
They negotiate.
They move.
They sing.
They tell stories.
They become leaders and teammates.
One child’s idea inspires another, and something that began as a teacher’s invitation becomes unmistakably their own.
The adult does not need to write every scene.
The teacher can prepare thoughtfully, introduce something irresistible, and create an environment rich with possibility.
Then the teacher can listen.
Observe.
Trust.
And make room for children to lead.
The teacher sets the stage.
The child brings the story to life.
And somewhere in that beautiful space between preparation and possibility, a child finds the freedom to lead, create, imagine, and shine.
Those beliefs were not formed all at once.
They grew across years of teaching and observing children, through professional leadership and community service, through family and new chapters—and through a lifetime of experiences that gradually found their way into the classroom.
Cathleen Condon Rees’s journey in early childhood education has unfolded across many years and many chapters—through teaching, professional leadership, community service, family, and an enduring commitment to the importance of play in a young child’s life.
Her work began where so much of her heart has remained:
with young children.
Across early childhood settings, Cathleen came to understand that some of the most meaningful learning happens when children are given something wonderful to begin with—and then the freedom to make it their own.
As her experience in the classroom grew, so did her commitment to the larger early childhood community.
During the 1980s in Decatur, Illinois, Cathleen served first as Vice President and later President of the local NAEYC affiliate, joining other early childhood professionals in advocating for developmentally appropriate practice and high-quality experiences for young children.
Her commitment to children also carried her into the wider Decatur community. As a member of the Junior Welfare Association of Decatur, an organization founded in 1938 with programs benefiting children, Cathleen became part of a long tradition of service that included the signature Shoe Fund and the Carriage House Learning Center.
Her community involvement also included Dove and its work serving children and families, including early childhood efforts for children at risk.
Cathleen served on the Decatur Day Care Board of Directors as well. That chapter became part of an especially meaningful community undertaking: bringing child care and services for older adults together in an intergenerational setting. Decatur Day Care Center and the Life Enrichment Center of HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital came together in the intergenerational complex, creating opportunities for young children and older adults to share experiences across generations.
Her service reached still further through United Way in the Decatur area, where she served first as Vice Chairman and later Chairman. Across these different roles, the setting might change, but the thread remained much the same: children, families, and the community that surrounds them.
This reflected something that had become increasingly important to Cathleen—the well-being of children is connected to the strength of the families, educators, and communities surrounding them.
Later, in Nebraska, that same spirit of service continued through the Junior League of Lincoln. Its projects included providing diapers so mothers could return to work, and volunteers helping young mothers with homework and schoolwork so that graduation could remain possible.
Sometimes service is a program.
Sometimes it is advocacy.
And sometimes it is something remarkably ordinary.
A young mother may need someone to help make it possible for her to continue her education while caring for her baby.
A family may need something as basic as diapers so that a mother can return to work.
A child may simply need another caring adult somewhere in the circle.
Those experiences reinforced something Cathleen had learned in the classroom:
Small things are not always small.
A simple act can change what becomes possible for someone else.
It was never about being the person at the center.
It was about helping create the conditions in which someone else could flourish.
Perhaps that is another reason the image of setting the stage has remained so meaningful to her.
A teacher sets the stage for a child.
A mentor can set the stage for a young parent.
A professional organization can set the stage for educators to find one another, learn from one another, and speak together for children.
A community can set the stage for families to feel supported rather than alone.
And sometimes, setting the stage means simply noticing what is needed—and quietly helping provide it.
And, like any life, her professional journey did not unfold in one uninterrupted line.
There were meaningful chapters devoted to family, alongside new beginnings and new places. Each chapter brought its own experiences, relationships, and opportunities to listen, learn, and grow.
And somewhere within that larger story, a little family name began finding its way toward the work she loved.
CeCe was first a name of affection, given to Cathleen by her nephew.
Long before it appeared on a play-based plan or a website, it belonged to family.
In the classroom, she had been Cathleen or Ms. Cathleen. But over time, that affectionate name found its way into the songs, stories, movement, playful ideas, and learning experiences she was creating.
And eventually—
Ms. CeCe stepped onto the stage.
Lincoln, Nebraska became another chapter in a journey that continued to evolve, while the thread running through it remained remarkably constant: a deep respect for childhood, a belief in the power of play, and an understanding that children need both thoughtful guidance and room to bring their own ideas to life.
Looking back, the chapters that once may have seemed separate—early childhood education, professional leadership, community service, family, theatre, storytelling, original music, rhythmic movement, and play—were never really separate at all.
They were becoming part of the same story.
Today, those threads come together in Ms. CeCe Sets the Stage for Inspired Play™—a place created to share what years of teaching, observing, creating, and learning alongside children have made beautifully clear:
The adult can offer the beginning.
The environment can invite possibility.
And then—
we make room for the children to lead.
Perhaps it is no surprise that Cathleen came to think of this as setting the stage.
Because long before the classroom became part of her story, there was another place where imagination, anticipation, and possibility had already captured her heart.
There was a theatre.
Long before there was Ms. CeCe, there was Cathleen.
And long before there was a classroom, there was a stage.
Theatre entered Cathleen’s life early and left an impression that would remain with her for years to come.
There were performances at The Little Theatre on the Square in Sullivan, high school theatre, and later, at The Little Theatre at Monmouth College, on its quaint stage.
Each experience carried its own kind of wonder—the anticipation before a performance, the transformation of an ordinary space, the moment when the lights came up and something imagined suddenly became real.
What Cathleen could not have known then was how naturally that world would one day find its way into her life with young children.
Over the years, the early childhood classroom became its own kind of theatre.
Not because children were expected to perform.
Quite the opposite.
There was something familiar in that moment just before an experience began—the quiet anticipation, the sense that something was waiting to unfold.
A teacher might offer a song, open a story, begin a rhythm, or bring out a story basket with just enough inside to spark curiosity.
Sometimes, it might simply be a space that seemed to whisper, Come closer. There is something here for you.
And then came the part Cathleen grew to treasure most.
The moment when the children made it their own.
An idea would appear that no adult had planned. Another child would notice it and add something unexpected. Voices would gather. Imaginations would meet. And suddenly, what had begun as the smallest invitation was alive with the children’s own thinking.
There were children with imaginations far bigger than anything an adult could have planned for them.
There was joy in witnessing that transformation.
And there was something deeply moving in realizing that the most important thing the teacher could sometimes do was not to step in.
To listen.
To notice.
To trust.
To stand back long enough for a child to discover:
I have an idea.
My idea matters.
I can lead.
That understanding became part of Cathleen’s way of being with children.
Because setting the stage does not mean directing the play.
It means preparing with care and intention—and then having enough trust in children to loosen your hold on what happens next.
The teacher offers the beginning.
The child brings something no plan could have predicted.
And sometimes, standing quietly nearby, you have the privilege of watching a child discover a little more of who they are.
Perhaps that is what connected the theatre and the classroom all along.
Both held that breathtaking moment before something begins.
The lights have not yet come up.
The story has not yet been told.
No one knows exactly what will happen.
There is only possibility.
And an invitation.
To offer the beginning.
To make room for possibility.
And then—to watch the children shine.
The curtain rises.
But the stage has always belonged to the children.
Ms. CeCe’s Inspiration
A child enters with curiosity.
A story sparks imagination.
A song invites participation.
Movement brings the moment to life.
A game creates connection and joy.
A child discovers the confidence to lead, create, and shine.
And what makes it especially fitting for Ms. CeCe Sets the Stage for Inspired Play™ is that the child enters a place where curiosity can lead the way—where there is room to wonder, create, move, collaborate, and become part of the story.
This is where Inspired Play™ begins.
