Drama at RavenswoodMr. Guidry · PreK–8

Ravenswood Elementary · Chicago Public Schools

Every student chooses to make something and put it in front of people.

Drama at Ravenswood is a working theatre. PreK through 8th grade write, design, build, run lights, and perform in our black box every week.

See what we do by grade Browse our shows

Parents and families

  • What your child does in drama
  • Show dates and the year calendar
  • Auditions and rehearsals
  • How to help without building a set
Start here

Drama teachers

  • Projects, from one period to a full unit
  • Games with the debrief already written
  • Participation grading that holds up
  • Running a black box on no budget
Take what you need

Administrators

  • Scope and sequence, PreK through 8
  • Illinois Arts Learning Standards alignment
  • Elective structure and enrollment
  • Production history
See the curriculum

Happening now

Three things, updated when they change. Anything older than a semester comes down.

Getting the Set Ready

7th and 8th grade are writing a murder mystery

They built the suspects, the timeline, and the red herrings themselves. They perform it for families at the end of the quarter.

What the unit covers
Announced in October

Auditions for the Spring Musical

Open to grades 4 through 8. No experience needed and nothing to memorize ahead of time. The musical will be announced in October!

Audition details
Placing the set in a scale model.

5th and 6th Set Design Elective

Students learn about drafting, scale, model making, and how to tell a story with a stage.

See 3rd grade

One room, over 500 students, every year

The drama room is a black box. No desks, no assigned seats, risers along two walls and an open floor in the middle. PreK through 4th grade come every day for five-week modules. Fifth through eighth pick a ten-week elective and stay with it for the quarter.

Grade-by-grade breakdown
The drama room, empty, looking toward the risers

The classroom wishlist

Most of what is in this room I bought myself, and most of the rest was donated, found, or built out of cardboard. That works, and it will keep working. But a roll of gaff tape or a yard of muslin goes further here than it does almost anywhere else.

If you would like to send something, the list is short, specific, and everything on it gets used by students this year. Items ship straight to the school.

See the wishlist
No obligation, ever. Nothing about your child's experience in drama depends on this. Showing up to a performance is worth more than anything on the list.