Before the cast of the popular musical “Hamilton” portrayed their character at PrivateBank Theatre on Oct. 18, Thornton Fractional South High School junior Skylar Gertonson was on that same stage performing a scene she helped create.
It was a life-changing experience, she said.
“It was something of a dream for me,” she said. “I honestly was speechless for 10 minutes after the last song ended.”
Skylar and her classmate, Luis Herrera, created a scene involving Alexander Hamilton and George Washington and performed it at the theater in Chicago before being treated to “Hamilton” with hundreds of students from about a dozen Chicago area schools.
The experience was organized by the Gilder Lehrman Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on teaching American history.
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The scene Gertonson and Herrera created depicted Valley Forge, a military camp for the Americans during the Revolutionary War. Gertonson said the scene focused on the turning point during the war, when the American soldiers were ready to give up if not for the leadership of Washington and Hamilton.
“I wanted to convey a message that Washington was a man, a human like everyone else, but he rose above,” Gertonson said.
She wrote the lyrics to the scene while Herrera, a musician in the band at the Lansing school, composed the music.
Both students said they were nervous preparing to perform the scene in front of an audience of about 1,800 people, including some “Hamilton” cast members. But they allowed the power of telling the story take over and pulled off the two-minute scene to thunderous applause.
Herrera said the fact that Hamilton was an immigrant and rose to the level of a founding father, which is emphasized in the show, provides inspiration and relevance today.
Herrera’s and Gertonson’s AP history teacher, Matthew Tiffy, said the immigrant message story in the show and its cast members being of different ethnic backgrounds sends a message of inclusiveness to his students.
“It’s not just a bunch of old white guys sitting around,” Tiffy said.
Tiffy said the musical helps bring that part of American history alive for students. He said they watch video footage of everything from World War I to the Vietnam War, but it’s hard for them to imagine what it was like during the Revolutionary War.
“It creates a connection there kids normally wouldn’t have,” Tiffy said.
Frank Vaisvilas is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.