The fun starts now: a message from the student team!
The Spelling Bee cast on their opening night in March 2023. Photo by the Office of Communications.
Welcome to our 2023 Fringe Blog! Join us, the cast of Harker’s “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” as we embark on an exciting journey to perform at the renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August. As one of around 30 high schools selected from thousands of applicants across the world to perform at Fringe, we are thrilled to share what we have spent the past 11 months creating. From sightseeing in London and exploring new cuisines to wandering Edinburgh and meeting new people, we will take you along our Fringe journey and share the wonderful memories we will create in the coming weeks!
So, what exactly is Fringe? The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the world’s largest arts festival, which runs annually for three weeks in August. Embracing a diverse array of performances spanning theater, dance, comedy, and more, the festival celebrates the warm community of the performing arts and highlights the passions of international artists. From some of the biggest names in the industry to new and rising performers, you can find just about anything you could imagine, including fan-favorite musicals and dramas, as well as novel, up-and-coming shows going public for the first time ever at Fringe.
Each year, performers and arts lovers from all over the world flock to this festival to immerse themselves in the vibrant atmosphere and boundless creative energy. We at Harker are honored to be a part of this extraordinary event. In fact, we were the first high school to be invited to Fringe this year! We will strive to bring our kindness, respect, professionalism, and optimism everywhere we go and share our love of theatre with people from all over the world.
To celebrate our journey, we invite you to join us this Saturday at 7 pm at the Harker Upper School for our final home show before setting off to Scotland. With a cast of lovable, quirky characters and a perfect balance of raunchy humor and heartfelt emotion, this show is not to be missed. Since our previous March performances, the cast, crew, and directors have spent the past week rebuilding the show and making it better than ever! And P.S. – it’s free to watch, so grab a seat while you still can!
We hope you are just as excited as us for this incredible opportunity. Stay tuned for more updates and see you soon, Scotland!
Warmly,
Shareen and Selina