About
For over 25 years BRAVO, the award-winning, nationally recognized Performing Arts program at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School, has been committed to ensuring that all Brooks students can experience the transformative power of performing arts.
BRAVO is Brooks’ largest extracurricular program, touching over 30% of the student body. Our program uses the performing arts to inspire imagination, foster empathy, promote inclusivity, empower courage, build community, and embrace diversity.
The emphasis of BRAVO is on educating every child to be academically and artistically successful in partnership with home and community. BRAVO includes several initiatives and objectives centered upon the art of music, dance, drama, visual, technical, applied and the performing arts to inspire and teach students through motivation, time management, organization, esteem and parent and community involvement.
The BRAVO staff and Advisory Board are committed to offering and maintaining diverse, educational, unique, quality, and equitable programming.
Research shows that students have only to gain from involvement in the arts; a sustained education in music gives children the intellectual and creative skills that will last a lifetime. Through participation in BRAVO students learn focus, accuracy, discipline, patience, respect, perseverance, to listen and how to be quiet and they learn genuine pride and gain self esteem after executing a difficult piece successfully in a performance.
The BRAVO program includes full scale theatrical productions, stage crew, and dance studio in conjunction with a coordination of other performing arts after school activities designed to allow all Brooks students a diverse opportunity for involvement in the arts through drama, voice, dance, stage crew and other forms of artistic instruction.
Under the guidance of professional artists, performances arts is used to teach, mentor and empower students. In addition, BRAVO collaborates with our elementary schools and provides outreach programs throughout the year. Annually BRAVO participates in the Junior Theater Festival. Through the festival, BRAVO has built a collaborative relationship with Music Theater International and iTheatrics, piloting new Jr. adaptations of Broadway musicals. BRAVO offers two performing arts camps for 4th through 9th grade students during the summer. Auditions for the Bravo Performing Arts Academy are held the first week of March each year.
How do I get involved in BRAVO?
BRAVO offers your child a safe place to learn new skills, meet new people and have fun! For students who want to perform onstage, auditions are held three times each year to be cast in a full scale theatrical production. Rehearsals are after school and on some Saturdays. Students interested in behind-the-scenes activities will find plenty to do building sets, painting and learning stagecraft by joining CREW. CREW is open to all students with no audition and meets after school and on some Saturdays. BRAVO Dance Studio is open to all Brooks students with no dance experience necessary. Dance Studio meets twice weekly. For students who would like to learn to play guitar or advance their guitar playing skills, we offer Guitar Club that meets every Monday after school. BRAVO also hosts workshops during the year, such as The Young Americans, Singer-Songwriter Workshop, The Second City Improv Workshop and various other workshops, clubs, classes and assemblies.