PODCAST: NYC Students Perform Their HAMILTON-Inspired Creations At The First #EduHam

As reported by BroadwayWorld, yesterday marked the first day of #EduHam, a series of HAMILTON Wednesday matinees made available to New York City schools with a high concentration of students from low-income families for the ticket price of only $10.

The program was made possible through a $1.46 million grant by The Rockefeller Foundation to The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

But #EduHam, which will provide tickets to 20,000 students, is more than just one afternoon at the theatre. Attending a performance the revolutionary musical is the climax of a curriculum that provides access to the same historic documents Lin-Manuel Miranda used in his research, and requires students to use their creative powers to understand what was happening during late 18th and early 19th Century America in an accessible modern context.

The NPR podcast below contains a few highlights from yesterday afternoon's onstage presentations by attending students, including a song for the widowed Elizabeth Hamilton and a new rap for Aaron Burr.

One student from Brooklyn's Fort Hamilton High School explained an important lesson she took from the course: "You cannot always completely trust what you read in a primary source because it's written by a particular person. You must read several and absorb all of it and take your own take on it, whatever you think it might be."

The new musical Hamilton has book, music and lyrics by Tony and Grammy Award-winning composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also plays the title role. The musical is directed by Thomas Kail, with choreography by Andy Blankenbuehlerand music direction and orchestrations byAlex Lacamoire. Hamilton is inspired by Ron Chernow's biography "Alexander Hamilton."

The cast of Hamilton is comprised of Lin-Manuel Miranda (Alexander Hamilton), Daveed Diggs (Marquis De Lafayette, Thomas Jefferson), Renée Elise Goldsberry (Angelica Schuyler), Christopher Jackson (George Washington), Rory O'Malley (King George), Jasmine Cephas Jones (Peggy Schuyler, Maria Reynolds), Javier Muñoz (Hamilton alternate), Okieriete Onaodowan (Hercules Mulligan, James Madison), Leslie Odom, Jr. (Aaron Burr),Anthony Ramos(John Laurens, PhilipHamilton) andPhillipa Soo (Eliza Hamilton).

HAMILTON is the acclaimed new musical about the scrappy young immigrant AlexanderHamilton, the $10 Founding Father who forever changed America with his revolutionary ideas and actions. During his life cut too short, he served as George Washington's chief aide, was the first Treasury Secretary, a loving husband and father, despised by his fellow Founding Fathers and shot to death by Aaron Burrin their legendary duel.