It is no secret across NCW that Year 12 student Rahel is infatuated with Hairspray The Musical! She is often bundling around college humming the songs and reciting different scenes, so when the opportunity arose for her to go and see it at Cheltenham Everyman Theatre, it was a very easy ‘Yes!’.

As part of the work that Rahel is doing in Thematics, she was tasked with being able to organise the trip herself – from booking tickets, requesting audio description, finding out about parking and liaising with different departments in school to bring it together. Students Isy and Emma also joined Rahel.

Speaking of the trip, Rahel said: “I was so excited to go to the theatre! This is one of my favourite musicals. I’ve already seen it once in London, and I know all of the lyrics to all of the songs!”

The group were met by Sally-Ann, who Rahel had liaised with when booking tickets. She was able to explain about the audio description and the story of the musical to help the students better understand and follow the performance.

“As soon as the music started I was so excited. The curtains parted for the first scene which showed Tracy in bed. She started to sing ‘Good morning Baltimore’ and I did too! 
My favourite scene was the Madison dance in the Corny Collins show!”

Following the performance, the group got to meet Paul Hutton who played Wilbur (Tracey’s Dad) – it was the icing on the cake!

Thank you to all of the staff at Cheltenham Everyman Theatre who assisted with the smooth running of the trip!