Over the summer, theatre students traveled to England and Scotland to perform In the West, a compilation of monologues. The trip was an opportunity to perform and sightsee.

“What didn’t we do on it?” junior Sydney Norris said. “We obviously performed In the West at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but we did so much more as well. We went and saw Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Edinburgh Castle, and my personal favorite Edinburgh Botanical Gardens.”

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the largest arts festival in the world, drawing in thousands of performers from across the globe. Chosen as one of 50 among many high school nominations, the theatre department was accepted into the American High School Theatre Festival in Edinburgh.

“It was a huge honor to be invited to partake in such a wonderful trip, but I don’t think we’ll be able to do it again anytime in the near future,” theatre director Stephanie Smith said. “Fundraising this much puts a lot of stress on me and the entire department. I’m very excited to be able to enjoy this year at a much more lax pace.”

The trip was a mixture of tourist attractions, theatre opportunities and performances.

“So we arrived in London and toured the city for two days which was tons of walking but included a workshop at Shakespeare’s Globe and seeing The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre before getting on a train at King’s Cross Station to go to Edinburgh,” junior Ashley Tysor said. “In Edinburgh we got some free time to wander around the city and see some shows at the Fringe. We toured Edinburgh Castle and took a bus to the highlands to see Sterling Castle and the countryside. We performed four times in a church that had been converted to a theatre and once on the Royal Mile, the street at the heart of the city.”

They traveled to see the National Museum of Scotland, the Royal Botanical Gardens and the Military Tattoo, a show comprised of performers from all over.

“There was so many plants I had never seen before,” Norris said. “I saw everything from ferns that existed in the Jurassic to the largest plant in the world, and there was this room that was all cactuses and plants native to Texas which was like a home away from home.”

Symbolic of their journey and their accomplishments, the students ended the trip climbing Arthur’s Seat, the main peak of a group of hills in Scotland.

“I was very excited to have gone on this trip,” Tysor said. “It was an amazing experience and I already want to go back. I got closer to everyone who went and it was absolutely unforgettable.”