All the world's a stage for 13 Shady Side Academy theatre students, who are preparing to perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland with American Performing Arts International (APAI) in August 2018.

This marks the second time that SSA's theatre program has been invited to participate in this prestigious international festival. In 2016, SSA took 12 students to Scotland to perform at the Fringe for the first time, and the Academy hopes to make this a regular part of the Senior School drama program.

APAI enables the best American drama students to showcase their skills on an international stage each year at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest performing arts festival. Every August, thousands of performers take to hundreds of stages in Scotland's capital, presenting shows for every taste. In 2017, there were 53,232 performances of 3,398 shows in 300 venues at the Fringe.

SSA student actors and technicians will present three performances of Scenes From Almost, Maine by John Cariani on Aug. 9, 10 and 11 at 10:35 a.m. at theSpaceUK @ Symposium Hall (Venue 43), located at Hill Square, Edinburgh EH8 9DR.All tickets are £5.00. Senior School Drama Director Dana Hardy-Bingham will direct the show and Technical Director Austin Davidheiser will design. One parent chaperone will join the trip as well.

The 13 students include nine actors and four technical crew members. Actors include: junior Oliver Henry; sophomores Alyssa Bockman, Sanjna Narayan and Clay Patterson; freshmen Emily Davidheiser, Annabel Everett, Mark Fire (not pictured) and Nathan Jyachosky; and eighth grader Franki Scragg. Technical crew members include: juniors Oliver Chetlin, Lily Scheele and Izzy Scragg (not pictured); and freshman Hannah Romoff.

"This is a huge honor and an amazing opportunity for our students," said Hardy-Bingham. "We're so excited to return to Scotland after an amazing experience in 2016. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for drama students at Shady Side, who will be making their international debut in front of audience members from all over the world. Not only do they get to perform on a worldwide stage, they also will have time to take in tons of other shows during our seven-day stay in Scotland, after spending a full week in London too! It's a wonderful way to experience theatre abroad and meet new artistic colleagues. I am thrilled to be able to offer this trip to another group of talented, dedicated, enthusiastic students, and I hope to return every other year so that any student interested in participating has the chance."

Congratulations to our theatre faculty and students for earning this amazing opportunity to perform internationally. Good luck in Scotland!