FLIPPING THE SCRIPT
CPS students take stage to cast own versions of play for ‘ Hamilton’ cast
The energy was palpable as 1,300 Chicago Public Schools students pulled up downtown in more than 20 buses to savor an afternoon at the theater, ready to see none other than the record- busting, Pulitzer Prizewinning “Hamilton.”
They were there courtesy of Google Inc., which had partnered with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in immersing the students in a six- week, Hamilton- era curriculum that included Google virtual reality tools.
“We’ve been studying Alexander Hamilton’s life. We could choose who we wanted to focus on during that era, and me specifically, I chose Hercules Mulligan, who was a spy for George Washington,” said Deon Myles, 16, a student at Air Force High School. “I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see the play. My mother went, and she was so happy I was going to get this opportunity.”
During their study, Google Goggles had taken these students back in history, virtually placing them in the middle of the fermenting American Revolution, for example, or on the scene of the action- packed HamiltonBurr duel.
And on Wednesday, they weren’t just going to see the popular, hip- hop musical. They were going to turn the tables on its lauded cast.
The students spent the morning performing on the Hamilton stage for the cast, with their own versions of scenes from the play. They would rap. They would sing. They would recite. They would debate. And the cast would be in awe.
They’d say as much in a Q and A session with the students afterward, before retiring to prepare for an afternoon matinee performance for the students.
“When they gave us the curriculum packet, we did it in class, and then we were supposed to come up with like a skit,” said Winter Smith, a sophomore at Phoenix Military Academy, who performed a rap about the Boston Tea Party, one of 12 student performances.
“I wrote that rap in like 15 minutes, and actually, I wasn’t that nervous,” she said. “When I performed it at school, I was nervous, because my peers made it worse than it really was. But in front of this huge audience today, I was actually like, ‘ OK, I can do this.’ I honestly never heard about Hamilton until we started doing the work in class and stuff. I thought it was really cool how he strived to do a lot, persevered and achieved it.”
Twenty- two schools were represented. Google said it developed the Hamilton virtual reality tools last month because the groundbreaking play converges with Google’s mission.
“We really respect how Hamilton is using information, and telling it in a new way, and that inspired Google to get involved,” said Google Midwest spokesman Rob Biederman.
“Google’s mission is to really make information accessible and useful, And that’s our connection to Hamilton. They’re really telling important American stories in an accessible, new innovative way that really relates to these students, and we wanted to make it more of an inclusive experience for students,” he said. “We’ve been working on the VR [ Virtual reality] tools a long time, but within the last month is when we developed the Hamilton one. It’s brand new.”
Dwight Strong, a junior at Noble Street Charter school, performed a poem he’d written about the Boston Massacre.
“It was one of the key events that led to the American Revolution. It was like the colonists were protesting against the British, because the rules that they enforced were unfair, and they wanted to change the policy. That’s when they began to protest, and things turned bad,” Strong said.
“It reminded me of today’s protests over victims of police brutality,” he said. “This is my first time actually going to a big play like this. So it’s very exciting, and it’s fun, and just a lot of emotions. When I heard I was going to be performing in front of 2,000 people, I was like, ‘ Whoa. That’s kind of intimidating.’ I was nervous, but I managed to get through it.”
And during the play, all you saw were wide eyes, glued and attentive — no fidgeting — and of course, lots of applause and laughter.