On January 16th, about a hundred of Mrs. Mangone’s U.S. History students traveled to the Broward Center for an extremely memorable performance. Two of which, including myself, got the opportunity to perform on stage!

      “It [Hamilton] was very exciting, and I felt incredibly grateful, to experience Hamilton with my students.  I had previously seen the show, but this time, with 100 of my students, was very different. Of course the concept of history and politics coming alive in an entertaining way is very near to my heart, but the show also incorporates so many powerful messages.  Hamilton celebrates diversity in America and reminds us all to use our talents and determination to overcome adversity and achieve our goals. I’m very proud of the projects my students completed in conjunction with this program, and it was an absolute honor to accompany them to the theatre!”

-Mrs. Mangone on seeing Hamilton with her history students.

     That’s exactly what Ines Seymour and I did. We put our skills together to create a dance and monologue based on Deborah Sampson’s life as a female Revolutionary War Hero. Can I get a whoop-whoop for women?

     Deborah Sampson dressed as a male in order to fight for her country’s freedom, she even tended to her own bullet wounds to prevent being discovered as a woman. She’s pretty much the Revolutionary War version of Mulan. The entire performance was about a minute and a half long but it flew by; it felt like I was on stage for all of five seconds. We performed our piece in front of 2,500 students, a hundred of which consisted of our very own Chiefs!

“It was nerve racking at first, seeing how many people were out there looking and waiting to watch the performances, but when I got up there I felt pretty good. It was exciting.”

-Ines Seymour

     The crew and other student performers were super nice and supportive. When we first got there the crew directed us on stage to take photos. That is when everything became real. While Ines and I stood on stage waiting for the photos to be taken, we searched the crowd to find our fellow Chiefs. When I spotted them, I felt just a little more comfortable on stage.

     There were thirteen other groups, each consisting of either a soloist, duo, or trio. One of the Hamilton crew members “circled up” all of the student performers and did a mini warm-up to get the nerves and emotions out to prepare us to go on stage. Backstage we huddled around to watch each person or group go on stage, cheering and clapping along to each song or rap performed. The audience was just as involved and it was extremely inspiring to hear and see what the other groups had come up with.

  I hope more Chiefs get the opportunity to let their creativity flow and show off their talents like I did!