In December 2013, students from West London Community College performed the world premiere of their original play about autism; in August 2014 they took ‘The Trip’ to the masses to perform at the biggest performing arts festival in the world – Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
I’m proud to say I was fully backed by Hillcrest and my managers. We opened online money giving pages, sold cakes and lunches in the college.
Armed with a mini bus full of set, costume and, of course, enthusiastic actors, we headed to Edinburgh full of anticipation; it didn’t disappoint. From start to finish, the experience was truly amazing. The play was extremely well received and the actors themselves fell in love with this ancient city.
We enjoyed as much as we could of what Edinburgh had to offer; from seeing other shows to the museums to the nightlife.
The highlight has to be seeing this extraordinary group of individuals work so tirelessly as a team to pull each other through our time there. They lived together, laughed together, even cried together, but came out the other side as stronger, more confident human beings.
I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved up there. Our aim was to educate the audiences about the complex condition that is autism. We did that every time we stopped someone and asked them to take a flyer.
Jamie Foster, West London Community College