Twenty-four sophomore students from social studies teacher Jon Hartquist and English teacher Mike Levinson’s Core classes traveled to Ashland, Oregon for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival on May 3-6.

The students attended three plays: “My Fair Lady,” “The Unfortunates” and “Taming of the Shrew.” They also participated in three workshops involving stage makeup and music workshops held at Southern Oregon University, and an acting workshop led by festival actors.

“I really enjoyed the trip,” sophomore Grant Campfield said. “My favorite play was ‘The Unfortunates.’ It was really amazing. We were given a lot of freedom between plays and workshops and everyone was able to walk around town and enjoy themselves.”

Levinson, Hartquist and counselor Sarah Gordon chaperoned the trip. “This idea of going to see three different plays was really important to Mr. Levinson, and to a lot of the kids in the class,” Hartquist said. “It was fun hanging out with the kids outside of the classroom; it’s a different vibe. We’ve had these kids freshmen year and sophomore year, so we’re all very close.”

In addition to attending the three shows, students had free time to explore Ashland. “We ate a lot of good food and shopped at these vintage, spiritual clothing shops,” sophomore Roni Bowen said.

“The kids were all totally blown away [by ‘The Unfortunates’],” Hartquist said. “They’re still talking about it a week later. This idea that we can bring a number of kids on a really cool field trip, learn a ton, have a good time and get a ton out of it really appealed to us. None of us had ever done a field trip like this. This was the right group of kids to do this trip with.”