On July 9, audience members gathered to watch young performers take their shot in the Patrick Studio. Six schools from our Hippodrome Education Network; Core City Academy, Core Jewellery Quarter Academy, Core Arena Academy, Harborne Academy, Saltley Academy, Halesowen College and Shireland Collegiate Academy, performed their interpretation of Hamilton, based on the themes and ideas from the show.

As part of schools’ involvement with HEN, students have been working on developing their performance skills, inspired by the show Hamilton and the themes, characters and songs within the hit musical. Hippodrome Learning Artists worked with school pupils from across the West Midlands for several weeks and their summer term projects drew to a celebratory close with a showcase evening for family and friends.

The evening commenced with a routine from the first of our Core Schools, City Academy. Set in a school, the class teacher is finding a new way to get the students interested in History, in particular the life of Alexander Hamilton.

Core Arena Academy then gave us two wonderful performances. The first was a contemporary dance duet piece to the track ‘Burn’. The second performance was a song/rap that the students had written themselves. A Hamilton diss-track, used by one character to verbally attack another, from the perspective of Aaron Burr and Eliza Schuyler. Aaron Burr is remembered for his famous personal and political conflict with Alexander Hamilton.

The third of our Core schools, Jewellery Quarter Academy, brought us a piece set in a world where politicians become popular by being able to rap! In this piece Alexander Hamilton is rich and famous, making Aaron Burr insanely jealous. Planning to get back at him, Aaron Burr steals Hamilton’s rap book.

Halesowen College were the next to perform, a school with a long-standing relationship with the Education Network. Showcasing something a little different, audiences had the chance to see their musical theatre performance featuring a medley of songs from the legendary group Madness, inspired by Our House the Musical.

Harborne Academy delivered a dance made of songs from Hamilton and a popular song from well know girl group Little Mix. The piece focused on the feud between Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and how history could have been different if the Schuyler sisters were in charge.

The final performance came from Saltely Aademy and was all about the Schulyer Sisters and each of their encounters with Alexander Hamilton.

Rounding off the evening in style 12 young dancers aged 14-18 from Shireland Collegiate Academy performed a specially choreographed hip-hop inspired piece of dance theatre created for the Hamilton Gala night, pre-show, among the guest tables.

The evening was a fantastic and exciting review of what schools within the network have been working on and the skills they have developed in the process. Craig Randle, Hippodrome Education Manager for Secondary Schools and Colleges was our compere for the evening and said: “Our final showcase of the academic year was a wonderful and varied evening filled with the achievements of all our students. Some groups have been rehearsing for nearly two months and others for just over a month but all of them performed incredibly well and, from rehearsals to the stage, came at the project with enthusiasm and professionalism. We’re really excited to see what our student groups get up to next term when they will be working on Peter Pan and Aladdin.”

Tickets for Hamilton are still on sale and are available until the end of the run, on Saturday 31 August.

Tickets can be booked here or by calling 0844 338 5000*

 *0844 calls will cost you 4.5p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge.