This past summer, from May 30 to June 2, students from the Gibson Southern Theatre Department left the quiet country roads of Gibson County and entered the hustle and bustle of New York City.
“We had seven chaperones, including myself and 45 students,” theatre director Adam Bledsoe said.
There was a mix of both parent and teacher chaperones on this trip.
“This was my first time chaperoning for a trip longer than just a day,” said Gibson Southern’s Art teacher Laura Russell. “I had never been to New York myself, so it was really exciting for me.”
In New York, the group saw many different sights, shows and stores.
“We saw two Broadway shows, ‘Hadestown’ and ‘Six,’ we went to Central Park, a Broadway bookstore, a Broadway tour with sets and costume pieces, we walked the Brooklyn Bridge,” said International Thespian Society Troupe #5623’s president Cassandra Reeves.
Along with these, they also visited Radio City Music Hall, the Statue of Liberty, 5th Avenue, Chinatown and Times Square, as well as many other shops and restaurants.
“We got a really privileged trip because we had reservations for everything, so we were able to pack so many things in,” junior Allison Spindler said. “I’m sure we got two times the trip as any normal person because we got to go to so many different places.”
The tour company that helped plan most of the trip was Junior Tours.
“We have worked with the same tour company since 1999, so I have been involved in that a little bit increasingly through the years,” Bledsoe said. “We have such a good relationship with them. They are top-notch as far as planning and logistics.”
Two of the major events planned for this school trip were the Broadway musicals, “Six” and “Hadestown.”
“I think it was two very good shows to pick because they were so different,” Reeves said.
The students had differing views on which musical they thought was best.
“My goal is always to try to show two different types of shows,” Bledsoe said. “I feel like it’s always a success when we walk away, and even now if we bring it up in the classroom, it’s a split of which show was better.”
A few people, like Spindler, previously saw some of the productions.
“I had seen ‘Six’ beforehand in St. Louis,” Spindler said. “You couldn’t really see the actors in St. Louis, but on Broadway, you could see everything and you were like, ‘Holy crap they’re right there.’”
A highlight of the trip for most of the students and chaperones was meeting Lin-Manuel Miranda.
“I was standing there waiting on somebody because a lot of people in our group had gone to get coffee,” Reeves said. “I said ‘I’ll just wait, get me something,’ and I’m standing there and I hear this guy go ‘excuse me.’ and I say ‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ then I just stopped and stood there.”
Meeting Miranda was not a planned part of this trip. There was a small amount of extra time for them to fit in, so Bledsoe decided to take them to The Drama Book Shop, which is a place Miranda otten visits. Usually, groups will not get to meet him, as most times when planned groups come in he will not be there.
Because of COVID-19, there were no students who were on this trip in previous years. For some students, this was even their first major school trip.
“Watching these kids learn to maneuver themselves in a different environment was really neat for me to see how they handled the situations,” Russell said. “The nine in my group, I really got to know. I wouldn’t have met them otherwise.”
Bledsoe plans to keep this trip going every two years, as originally planned before COVID.
“We in the department just work, work, work, so it’s just a really cool time to see these kids that have worked so hard all year long in their element amongst friends and just really enjoying it,” Bledsoe said.
