40 Fall Matters 2016 In the meantime, Bustrin set forth to choose a play. Conveniently, her husband, Stephen Stubelt, is a co-advisor of the Parnassian Society. Like Bustrin, he has deep roots in community theater and during the past few years had written half a dozen plays. He mentioned one of them, The Ticket, to Bustrin. Described as a modern comedy that explores the many life choices, big and small, that we make every day and the destinations to which they lead, The Ticket seemed like an interesting proposition. Moreover, it had the practical advantage that it could be adjusted to accommodate a varying number of roles as the final size and composition of the troupe wouldn’t be known until months later. Flash forward to June 2016, and the 14 students committed to the trip – 12 actors and two technicians – performed The Ticket at the Black Box Theater for two nights. These performances then enabled Bustrin and Stubelt to fine tune and edit the show down to 90 minutes, the maximum length allowed at the Fringe, and give their “Farewell Performance” at CHS on June 29. Packing all of their equipment, from cables to projectors to props to laptops, into four large suitcases, the group set out the next day to begin their exciting 12-day journey to Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital. There they would be among thousands of performers taking to hundreds of stages. How did this all get started? The Festival Fringe dates back to 1947 when some actors who weren’t part of the official program of the newly-formed International Festival (created to celebrate and enrich European cultural life in the wake of the Second World War), staged their show anyway on the “Fringe of the Festival.” The success of the trend grew, with more and more performers following their example, and the Festival Fringe was officially created in 1958. By 2016, Fringe featured its largest festival yet with 50,266 performances of 3,269 shows in 294 venues. Once the Columbia students arrived in Scotland, they settled in at the University of Edinburgh along with Bustrin and her fellow chaperone and English department colleague Suzanne Ryan. The women encouraged the students to investigate Edinburgh. Bustrin added, “I remember how much my own experience performing and traveling internationally as a teenager profoundly impacted my life. I just wanted to do all I could do to make certain I could give this gift to the CHS Parnassian community.” And that’s exactly what they did, making full use of their bus passes while keeping their chaperones informed of their whereabouts with WhatsApp, a free global messaging and calling app. As Ethan Ford, a CHS junior who was one of the technicians, recalls “It was great – we could do what we wanted. Most groups didn’t have that leeway and complained about it.” His favorite activity was hiking to Arthur’s Seat, the main peak of a group of mountains that sits in the center of Edinburgh and gives an excellent panoramic view of the city. The students also filled their days with sightseeing, developing an appreciation for Scottish cafeteria food, generating publicity for their show, and taking in performances of their choice. Showtime took place over the course of four days, with performances starting at 9 a.m. The CHS actors learned that putting up a show in an unfamiliar theatre is fraught with challenges. Ford had all of one hour to figure out the light and video system but managed to pull it off. From there he learned how to bring up the show within the allotted half hour before each performance. At the end of the trip, the students and their teachers were exhausted, but in that happy way where they understand that they’ve had a multitude of new experiences to take in, ones that will last them a lifetime. Says Bustrin, “I think on a personal basis each student was impacted differently traveling with a group abroad, performing on an international stage, making friends with other high school students from around the world. The experience performing at the Fringe certainly ‘kicked the door open’ to their understanding of what it means to be a citizen of our amazing world and how they fit into that tapestry.” Would they do it again? Ford doesn’t even pause to think when he says, “Absolutely! I would go in a heartbeat.” Ellen Donker is a Maplewood resident who did not get to see The Ticket, but did see Ethan Ford along with her own son in their first production, Macbeth, when the boys were fifth graders at Jefferson School. That chance to handle the lights has fueled Ford’s current interest as a theater tech.