The Big Apple: home to the Brooklyn bridges, bagels and Broadway.
Students from theater classes took a trip to New York from Mar. 8 to Mar. 9. During the trip students were able to observe possible future careers, colleges and occupational opportunities. Senior Jax Kobey said, “The goal [of the trip] was to be a fun, engaging way to learn about and see higher-level theater up close. As part of that, we toured Marymount College and got to see backstage, went to the Broadway museum, did an hour and a half master class and saw ‘Hadestown’ on Broadway.”
Touring colleges like Marymount can be beneficial to students looking for colleges where they can pursue a career in the performing arts, particularly universities in New York. Kobey, for example, will be attending the University of Binghamton this fall, located in upstate New York. Similarly, senior and spring musical lead Nadia Arnold will pursue a career in the performing arts as she plans to major in musical theater at Montgomery College.
Departing school at 3:45 a.m. and returning at 3:00 a.m. the following day made the traveling inopportune for students like Kobey. “My only critiques for the future are the insane hours of the trip, and taking a class on dancing after walking many miles. But, overall, it was absolutely amazing,” Kobey said.
The band students took a trip to Orlando, FL, as part of a musical workshop at the Universal Studios’ parks. Sound Design: Music and the Art of Foley by Robert W. Smith is a program designed to help orchestra, band and choir students learn more about working movie musicians. In the program, students are able to analyze different music pieces from famous films including “Despicable Me,” “The Lorax” and “The Secret Life of Pets and Trolls.” “It was a fun experience and we learned the process of creating a movie, which has actually inspired me to write my own movie,” sophomore Isabelle Galita said.
Looking toward next year’s trip and itinerary, “I would totally go again next year, but maybe to a different theme park such as Disney so that I don’t have to pay a huge amount for the same experiences. This year, I would say that under the rainy circumstances, everything was as well planned as it could have been. My favorite part of the trip was spending time with my favorite band friends and talking about all the relationship drama that arose,” Galita said.
Both trips helped students explore a diverse range of career paths within their passions. The band trip, for example, allowed students to see themselves and their passions reflected in a unique and creative career such as a cinematic music producer as opposed to the more traditional: concert performers. Theater’s trip to Marymount College showed students what the study of performing arts can look like on a higher level of education in both college and on Broadway.
