Making American History Fun Again With ‘Hamilton’

English teacher Elizabeth Muller and her students at Al Raby High School in Garfield Park get ready to see “Hamilton” at the Privatebank Theater as part of the “Hamilton” Education Program.
English teacher Elizabeth Muller and her students at Al Raby High School in Garfield Park get ready to see "Hamilton" at the Privatebank Theater as part of the "Hamilton" Education Program. Gabrielle Wright / WBEZ
English teacher Elizabeth Muller and her students at Al Raby High School in Garfield Park get ready to see “Hamilton” at the Privatebank Theater as part of the “Hamilton” Education Program.
English teacher Elizabeth Muller and her students at Al Raby High School in Garfield Park get ready to see "Hamilton" at the Privatebank Theater as part of the "Hamilton" Education Program. Gabrielle Wright / WBEZ

Making American History Fun Again With ‘Hamilton’

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After weeks of studying Alexander Hamilton and the other founding fathers, hundreds of high school students from Chicago got a chance to watch a matinee of the hit musical “Hamilton” in downtown Chicago on Wednesday.

The program also included a Q&A with the actors and musical performance by some of the students. 

WBEZ caught up with a few of the CPS students and teachers during the program to hear what they learned from the experience. Morning Shift also talked to James Basker, president of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, about bringing the Hamilton education program to Chicago.

Here are what some of the students had to say.

Crispin Luno, 18, James Bowen High School

“I’ve always been interested in history. I knew a little bit about the Alexander Hamilton thing, but this is definitely broadened the horizon on how much I know. And I can say this has interested me a little bit more in this time period.”

Jimena Castillo, 16, George Westinghouse College Prep

“I got this whole new opportunity because I know I could never, ever afford to see a play or anything like that downtown because my family doesn’t have that kind of money and the fact that I was able to do that for 10 dollars was absolutely amazing.”

Kai Bosley, 18, Providence St. Mel School

“I got a better experience in terms of kind of relating what the people in the past go through to what occurs now, like with George Washington. My song was about Valley Forge and his whole experience with seeing men dying, so I wanted to really transcend what he was experiencing so it would be relatable. Like he was feeling lonely he was feeling insecure, but at the same time he wanted to forge ahead for his men.”