The day began by boarding our bus at CRS at 8:00am. We were prepared and excited. After all, we’ve been getting ready for the trip all year!
We arrived at 1:00pm and immediately headed to our first stop: The American Museum of Natural History.
In family groups, we discovered many exhibits.
We saw dinosaur fossils including the new Apex Stegosaurus Fossil, reptiles, mammals, gems, minerals, and the Cosmic Splendor astronomical jewelry gallery (and more.)
We even found an otter!
After the museum, we enjoyed some time outdoors taking in Central Park.
We dropped off our bags at the hotel and walked to Gayle’s Broadway Rose for dinner. We enjoyed live performances of popular Broadway songs during our meal of salad, sandwiches, and ice cream.
Mr. Burnstein joined us for dinner after a day of meeting CRS alumni in the city!
After dinner, it was a two block walk over to Jacob’s Theater to see The Outsiders on Broadway!
In English class with Jake, we spent a lot of time reading, learning about, and studying the book the show is based on. It explores themes of segregated communities, socioeconomic privilege, prejudice, and what it means to be an “outsider.” We talked before the show about how the set was designed to “open up” as Ponyboy’s life opened up beyond Tulsa.
While reading the text, we focused a lot on character development (why characters make certain decisions, how characters evolve over the course of a story, and how character development impacts the larger story.)
We also discussed the content and stylistic differences between the film and the movie and how their differences impact engagement. Students thought a lot about this as they watched the live show.
Highlights included the rain on stage, the pyrotechnics, and the incredible actors. One student commented “The acting made it feel so real! I don’t usually like musicals, but I loved this one.”
Another said “It was so impressive how they could dance and stage fight so intensely in the ‘rain’ on stage!”
We headed back to the hotel still buzzing with excitement and went to bed to rest up for day two.