London Trip and King Lear Courtesy of Project Success and The Guthrie

London Trip and “King Lear” Experience: courtesy of Project Success and The Guthrie

Project Success and The Guthrie sponsored a trip to London for eight Minneapolis high school students, one from each public school, in early November 2016. The goal was for the students to see and experience “King Lear,” and then bring that experience home to 9th graders, because they will be going to see “King Lear” at The Guthrie this spring.

Going to London to see “King Lear” was basically the most amazing experience of my life. I am extremely grateful that I was able to go on this incredible trip, and with such incredible people, too. It was really fun to see all of the tourist sites like Big Ben and the London Eye, but even better was the Old Vic’s production of “King Lear” that made Shakespeare’s works come alive onstage in a way that I hadn’t seen before. Another highlight was our acting class at the Globe Theatre, where each student got to make a grand entrance and then stand onstage at the Globe. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that made all of us more confident in our acting abilities, and in ourselves in general.  

I’m very excited for “King Lear” to come to The Guthrie this spring! I’m looking forward to getting back together with the student group to work on ways to make “King Lear” more accessible to other high schoolers. Thank you so much to Ms. Berg and to Project Success for giving me confidence and showing me the breadth of my potential.

--Claire Van Note, 11th grader at Southwest High School