Students are “learning U.S. history” from Hamilton, the hottest show on Broadway,” reports Wayne D’Orio in Education Next.
EduHam funds curriculum development and theater tickets for public school students in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco.
Among the assignments, students analyze primary source documents, recasting them in modern language. The course capstone is an original performance (by students) on the Hamilton stage, followed by a matinee viewing of the musical, and a question-and-answer session with the cast.
At a student performance in November in New York City, “the most raucous reception” went to “the rock-’em, sock-’em performance of Traci Ann Pauda and Madeline Ferraris from the Brooklyn School for Music and Theatre,” writes D’Orio. “The duo portray Hamilton’s wife, Elizabeth (Eliza) Schuyler, and his mistress, Maria Reynolds, locked in a fight over their man, swapping insults and even shoves as the crowd hoots its approval.”
My husband and I were in New York City last weekend to visit my daughter and his son. Hamilton was far too pricey for us: We got tickets to Come from Away, about the Newfoundlanders who welcomed “plane people” whose flights were diverted after 9-11. It’s heart-warming.