Over spring break, 14 Cathedral Catholic students embarked on a ten day journey to London and Paris!

This trip was centered around drama and the theatrical arts, with an emphasis on seeing shows! The group saw four shows, numerous theaters, and took an acting workshop.

The 14 students spanned grade levels, with two freshmen, nine sophomores and three seniors, who all had a connection to Cathedral’s drama program.

The trip was spearheaded and chaperoned by Ms. Wilson, Cathedral’s drama teacher, and director, alongside Ms. Webb, the Latin teacher and assistant director.

This trip was the first of a couple upcoming international school trips, such as the language trip to Italy, France and Spain over the summer as well as a Music trip to Ireland in the upcoming year.

However the drama trip was still a monumental first, as Ms. Wilson shares, “We have never taken an international trip as a program, as far as I know, even in Uni history.”

Local school trips are subsequently returning, such as with small service trips to local schools and food banks. A small group of Cathedral students also took a trip to LA to see Homeboy Industries, which is all hopefully in an attempt to return to more off campus opportunities.

Ms. Wilson shares how in the past, “We have traveled to Shakespeares’ Festival in Utah and in Oregon. I’ve taken students on college tours in New York, and Los Angeles.”

Along the same line, Chinese 4 students used to take international trips to China as a class.

Whilst schools in general struggled through pandemic times, international travel was completely cut off. Many are only just returning to travel, and as Ms. Wilson says, this is “The first international trip out of any [Cathedral] group post Covid.”

Furthermore, the theater industry itself was hit hard by the pandemic, shows as seen before couldn’t exist anymore.

As told by Eleanor Baxter, on the “Shorthand,” in her article, “Covid-19: The Untold Stories of the Impact on the Theatre Industry,” “Ticket sales at UK theaters fell by 93 percent in 2020.”

This dramatic drop in sales shut down many long-standing theaters, and as they return, it’s more important than ever to support them.

Building on the importance of having this trip as theater returns to life, Ms. Wilson shares, “Especially coming back from the pandemic, when the entire theatrical world was paused and in question, like would theater really come back in the same way? A lot of places in the world didn’t know that, a lot of these companies that have been around for generations, hundreds of years, were threatened to a point of closure.”

The group of students were at the center of theater, and Ms. Wilson shares, “To be able to take my students to the National Theater of London, which is like the pinnacle of theater and to the Old Globe, these are the finest theatrical companies in the world. To see the Paris Opera house, home of the original ‘Phantom of the Opera’, you don’t get to do that in one trip, ever,” she proceeds to follow up with “Except we did!”

The National Theater, Shakespeare’s Old Globe and the Paris Opera house are commonly referred to as the three most prominent theater programs in the United Kingdom, so to see them all in one trip is invaluable.

At the National Theater the Cathedral group received a tour of the building, including through there three theaters, and a backstage tour, focusing on the tech, costuming and set building.

At Shakespeare’s Old Globe, the group first received a tour of the open air theater, a direct replica of the one built in Shakespeare’s time, that was unfortunately burned down. The group then proceeded directly into an acting workshop, before seeing Titus Andronicus.

This rendition of Shakespeare’s play, Titus Andronicus, took place in a smaller indoor theater, and featured an all female cast, completely lit by just over 115 candles.

One of the students on the trip, William Scarvie ‘23 shares “it showed me how worldwide acting is, visiting The Globe was a really cool experience to see this sort of birthplace of theater.”

Last but not least, the group toured the Paris Opera house whilst in Paris.

While in London the group of drama students saw a total of four shows, Allegiance, Titus Andronicus, Six, and then Back to the Future the Musical.

From a musical about Japanese-American internment camps, to Shakespeare’s bloodiest play, to a historical musical concert to a soon to be Broadway hit, there was a show everyone could love.

These four shows are perhaps the most diverse set of shows in a line up, and gave the students a variety of source material.

Furthermore, sophomore, and trip attende Shaelan Myhra shares, “I saw good actresses, and I was like wow!”

In agreement, Scarvie feels the same, and he shares, “ I would say I was able to take the strategies that I saw on the stage in the shows I saw like ‘Back to the Future the Musical’ and ‘Titus Andronicus’ and apply them to how I was approaching my acting.”

He will have the opportunity to put this into action in his upcoming performance in ‘Cinderella’, next week on the 26-28 at 7PM, Poway Center for the Performing Arts.

Myhra follows by sharing, “My favorite show was ‘Six’, because they were all so talented, and I’ve been listening to the soundtrack everyday since.”

The group greatly benefited from the trip, both as freshman and sophmores traveling so far internationally for the first time, to seniors, with this as their last available school sanctioned trip before college.

Scarvie adds to this, sharing, “it was a really unique and special experience as a senior. It was a great experience with my friends and I loved every minute of it.”

Ms. Wilson adds, “I think the greatest part about an internal trip, and this seems diametrically opposed, is to see the ways people are different in the world, but also the ways in which we are completely alike.”

She continues to share, “Theater and music, transcend language, transcend religion, transcend gender, and when you can see that, in places other than your backyard, you realize the impact and the things that connect us as humans, in a way you can’t without traveling.”

This trip was a great way to broaden the horizons of theater for the group of students. It showed the true scale of theater around the world

This drama trip will hopefully act as a success story, in order to bring back and bring to life more opportunities for Cathedral students to travel, and experience their passions globally.