Evanston School District 65

Creative drama was introduced into the Evanston/Skokie, Illinois school system in the late 1920s through the efforts of Winifred Ward, a Northwestern University children's theatre and creative drama professor. For thirty years, theatre specialists trained by Ward and her successors taught drama district-wide to Evanston students in grades four through eight.

During this time there were also other special drama education projects that were created for primary and elementary school students. One of these, the Children's Theatre of Evanston founded by Ward in 1925, was a joint venture with Northwestern University. Fully staged plays for young people were presented in the Evanston junior high school auditoriums. The plays were directed by District 65 drama teachers and/or by children's theatre professors and graduate students from Northwestern University. Adult roles were acted by the university students and children's roles were played by middle school students. In 1967 the Theatre changed its name to Theatre 65. In 1971 District 65 withdrew funding for the Theatre. The theatre continued to operate with the support of private donations and grants, but eventually closed in 1976.

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