Senior Students Enjoy NY Theatre Trip

November 1, 2019

Academics

GNS

A group of Senior School students had a chance to visit New York City last month for ISTA IB Theatre workshops. The trip lasted five days total.

“The first two days were about seeing the sights, then after that it was about workshops, which was interesting,” explained Lily Davies ’20, an IB Theatre student at GNS.

The workshops were specific to the IB Theatre programme, focusing on the Director’s Notebook, the Collaborative project and Solo Theatre Piece.

“They gave us a lot of tips on the Director’s Notebook and the Solo Piece. The Director’s Notebook I’m working on right now, so it was really helpful, and the solo piece I’m going to be doing at the end of the year,” Davies said.

Students from all over the world took part in the IB Theatre workshops.

“In my group, we had some people from Belgium, a couple of people from Ontario and the rest were mostly from the United States,” said Davies. “I definitely saw how big and impressive theatre can be.”

Davies says the workshops helped give her context for what theatre can be outside of the Victoria community.

“In Victoria we have really good theatre programs, especially at the Belfry,” she said. Still, the programs and productions on the island are often smaller than bigger cities like New York. “Sometimes you don’t get that ability to see those high-quality productions unless they tour, and if they are touring they usually come to Vancouver. So it’s difficult to see as a school. But going and seeing those high-level productions [ on Broadway ] was crazy.”

The students had a chance to see three different shows while they were in the Big Apple: Hadestown, Beetlejuice and To Kill a Mockingbird.

“My favourite part was the shows, specifically Hadestown. I had been listening to the soundtrack of Hadestown for a year plus… then I saw the show and I cried through Act II because it was so much better than I ever thought it could be,” said Davies, adding they even got to meet the cast and have their playbooks signed.

The other plays were just as exciting. Davies described seeing Beetlejuice as going to a rock concert, and said the atmosphere was electric.

“The whole crowd was so pumped up, and there were so many pyrotechnics,” she added.

Even though it was a theatre trip geared toward those in the IB programme, other students were able to enjoy it as well.

Saffron Sobkin ’20 was one of the non-theatre students who joined the trip.

“It was great and well organized,” she said. “We had a lot of fun; it was the sort of trip that was very intense. At the end of the day we were exhausted, but the good kind because you did so much and had so much fun.”

Sobkin is part of the GNS Theatre Company and has been in school productions.

“I wanted to go because I love musicals and I wanted to see the shows—which were great,” she explained. For Halloween, she dressed as Eurydice from Hadestown.

Even though Sobkin isn’t taking the IB Theatre programme, she says the trip was a great opportunity.

“You don’t have to be in the class to go. You just have to enjoy it, and if you don’t know anything about it and if you want to learn more just be enthusiastic and participate. It’s a really good time,” she said.

GNS students even had some time to take in local tourist attractions in New York, including going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Times Square, Central Park and more.