Hamilton Education Program Video Released by the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford

The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts has released a video about the Hamilton Education Program at work in Hartford, Connecticut. 

Filmed in the days leading up to and including the December 13, 2018, performance, the video follows the process of students engaging with Hamilton Education Program materials to research primary sources and create original pieces, from which the morning program of student work is drawn. Emphasizing the significance of students having the opportunity to perform on the Mortenson stage of the Bushnell Center and to be enthusiastic audience members for each other in what will be, for many of them, their first visit there, the video highlights inspiring student raps, a cappella songs, and other performance pieces. As with all Hamilton Education Program performance days, this one concludes with the professional touring production of the musical Hamilton.

Thanks to an initial grant from The Rockefeller Foundation, as well as many foundations and donors throughout the country, high school students in Title I schools in New York City, Chicago, San Diego, Tempe, Seattle, Denver, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Houston, Washington DC, Minneapolis, Boston, Charlotte, and Hartford each paid only a “Hamilton” ($10) to see the performance in 2018, with more cities to be added in 2019. 

Through the Hamilton Education Program, stuedents in Title I Gilder Lehrman Affiliate high schools incorporate Alexander Hamilton and the Founding Era into classroom studies, create original performance projects of their own using primary sources like those used by Lin-Manuel Miranda in writing Hamilton, and spend a full day seeing the strongest of these performances in the morning, a Hamilton cast Q&A, and an afternoon matinee of the Tony-winning musical.