DRAMA TAKES PART IN EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

Members of Peninsula’s Drama Department spent July 27 through Aug. 10 in Scotland, witnessing and participating in the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest performing arts festival in the world.

The group was chosen by the American High School Theatre Festival (AHSTF) to be one of approximately 45 American high school representatives to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Each year, AHSTF sponsors several schools to construct and produce full productions in Edinburgh.

Senior Liam Goodin is one of the students who traveled with the drama class this summer. The trip helped him realize the difficulties of preparing a show to be performed in a different country as well as the obstacles involved in having 17 high school students travel internationally.

“I think [what made the trip special for me] was both traveling out of the country and the bonds I made with my classmates,” Goodin said.

Junior Emma Cool, who also participated in the festival, felt that watching numerous productions on the trip was an educational experience for her. She was impressed with the creative use of available space in each of the shows she watched.

“[At the Fringe Festival] a lot of performers made use of every place possible,” Cool said. “We saw shows in the middle of the street and in a small room where the only [prop] was a sheet of cardboard. I think this trip taught us that it does not take a fancy set or venue because some of the best shows we saw were done with a minimal budget.”

The students watched performances that took place in a variety of venues and encompassed many genres and styles, such as hypnotism, comedy and a show titled “Flight” that simulated a plane crash using sound effects and illusions.

This is not the first time Peninsula has been chosen to perform by AHSTF at the festival. The last time they were chosen to perform was in 2015.

“If we are fortunate enough to be chosen again to go back in 2020 or 2021, I really would encourage any of our Drama students to take the opportunity to travel and perform,” Cohen said. “It is an amazing opportunity and a wonderful testament to all of the hard work our drama students continue to put in, production after production, year after year, keeping our department and its reputation strong.”