“The Drama Tour to the US not only gave me tips for drama but in general was a life changing experience.” – Liam Taylor (9/PR)

There are bad reviews, good reviews and then there are rave reviews, and this year’s Drama Tour of Chicago and New York led by Ms Tamara Smith, Mr Terence Priester and Mr Ben Williams got just that –  a rave review.

With most boys claiming that they had ‘the time of their lives’ or ‘the best fun ever’, it would be hard to resist being a bit curious about what it was that made this year’s tour, ‘the best ever’.

This year’s tour started in Chicago, imagine Lake Michigan in the foreground and towering skyscrapers all around. The first couple of days in Chicago were spent on foot and by rail as the boys experienced the city like true locals.  

On top of taking a mandatory selfie at the Chicago Bean and seeing some El Greco works at the Art Institute of Chicago, the boys got down to business when they paid a visit to the famous iO Improv Bar and Theatre. Here, the boys took part in an improvisation workshop and learnt that improvising with the truth is a lot more effective (and much harder) than simply pulling a gag from their instructor ‘Caesar’.

After a challenging and eye-opening workshop, they boys then sat down to watch a show by the Improvised Shakespeare Company. Louis Nicholls (10/FL), an audience member wrote, “The shows always have some sort of Shakespearean theme, the actors use Shakespearean language, characters have motives taken from the playwright’s famous plays. It felt uncomfortable to know that the actors did not have any knowledge of what they were going to do before they acted it, though to fully enjoy the experience we had to place our full trust in them and not doubt any of their decision making.”

The Shakespearean theme continued with the boys seeing a production of The Tempest directed by Aaron Posner and performed by the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (CST). The boys were able to speak to some of the actors and musicians to ask questions about work behind the scenes after the show.

But no visit to Chicago is complete without seeing a baseball game at Wrigley Field and a dinner at Bubba Gump’s, and that’s exactly what the boys did before heading off to New York, New York.

While in New York, the boys climbed to the top of the Empire State Building, strolled through Central Park, dropped into the Metropolitan Museum of Art and polished their shoes in their hotel rooms before seeing ‘Otello’ at the Metropolitan Opera House. Our enthusiastic travellers were also lucky enough to be in New York on a Sunday to experience Sunday Mass at Thessalonia Baptist Church in the Bronx where songs of praise were sung along with dancing. 

All in all, the tour was a huge success with countless memorable moments. A big thank to Ms Tamara Smith, Mr Terence Priester and Mr Ben Williams for organising the trip and making sure that everyone had the most fun possible!

Critical Acclaim 

“A definite highlight for me was ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time’. This play was adapted from a much loved book of mine, and seeing it come alive was simply astounding. Activities ranging from the baseball (Cubbies we love you) to a singing and dancing workshop gave me an extremely well-rounded and enjoyable experience of the States. I’ll treasure the experiences gained for all my life, and must thank Ms Smith, Mr Williams and Mr Priester for making sure we had as much fun as possible!”– Fergus Finlayson (10/JN)

“The shows were incredible. ‘The Tempest’ was an outlier for me with its perfectly performed, magician-styled representation of magic and fantastical music. The workshops were a great way of getting everyone out of their comfort zones and their social circles to become one big cohort of Drama enthusiasts. What surprised me was how many of them really got into the ambiance of America, which was definitely shown off at the baseball; go Cubs! The vibe that our group had created, although different from last time, brought everyone closer. Overall, I was over the moon that I was able to go back to the USA and, paraphrasing Ms Smith, I’ve never had so much fun in my life” – Harrison Saunders (11/LE)

“A great experience of the trip was the Something Rotten workshop on the last full day. The workshop required the group to complete a dance and song routine that was extremely fun and quite hilarious. The workshop was one of the most enjoyable parts of the tour and I’m sure the whole group would agree that it was a great way to sum up a fantastic trip.”  – (Tom Stapleton 10/KL)

“My favourite part of the US drama tour was New York—because of the Empire State Building. I also enjoyed Gino’s East which is famous for it’s deep dish pizza. It’s customary to write on the walls. I wrote on the wall “Mr Bean has been here”. I enjoyed the workshop at  iO (formally known as Improv Olympic) where we split in two groups to do some Improv stuff which is made up on the spot for about two hours.” – Vincent Blackwell (11/JN)

“The Drama Tour to the US not only gave me tips for drama, but in general was a life changing experience. It was fun to attend all these workshops and my favourite was the Broadway singing and dancing workshop with the cast member of the show we were about to watch: Something Rotten. My experience during that was so different from what I thought it was going to be. It was far from awkward and embarrassing as you weren’t individually being embarrassed, but as a group being embarrassed. My favourite show was probably ‘Something Rotten’, with all of its witty and funny jokes (and the odd inappropriate joke) allowed it to not only be amazing to watch and listen to, but also entertaining from start to end.” – Liam Taylor (9/PR).