A Shared Love of Storytelling: HDA Returns to the Edinburgh Fringe

On a morning in August 2025, inside a church serving as a performance venue, audience members began to take their seats.

“At Festival Fringe, the old saying goes that if you have more audience members than performers on stage, you’re a success,” said Hopkins drama teacher Mike Calderone, whose original play was about to be performed by a group of enthusiastic (but jetlagged) student actors from Hopkins School, more than 3,000 miles from home.

On this particular morning (the first of five performances the students would give that week) there was no need to count—the room was full.

For the students onstage, the response was immediate and surprising.

“Everyone was laughing at everything, which I don’t think anyone expected,” said Anjali van Bladel ’27. “We had done a short run at Hopkins, and our friends came, which was great, but those were people we knew. This was a room full of people we didn’t know at all.”

For van Bladel, performing at the Fringe brought a different kind of energy than performing at home. “It was validating in a way that felt different,” she said. “These people didn’t know us. They didn’t have to like it and they did.”

Among those seated in the audience that morning was Dr. Richard Orr, who was one of the original contributors to Ecce Romani, the Latin textbook that had inspired the play the students had just performed.

“For me, it was a complete nail-biter,” Calderone said. “But I kept thinking: if we’re going to do this, let’s do it honestly. Let’s invite the people who care most.”

The 2025 trip marked Hopkins’ full return to performing at the Fringe after the pandemic. For the occasion, Calderone chose a project that was both unlikely and inspired: his original stage adaptation of Ecce Romani, the classic Latin textbook first published in the early 1970s.

Ecce Romani on a Shoestring!, written and directed by Calderone, is a witty and self-aware celebration of a book that generations of students around the world have translated, puzzled over, and sometimes groaned through.

The concept initially emerged years earlier, when a student in Calderone’s class suggested dramatizing the book for a senior project. The thought lingered. Later, as Calderone searched for material suited to his ensemble-based “Shoestring” style—minimal sets, physical storytelling, and direct engagement with the audience—the idea resurfaced.

“The book is weirdly theatrical,” Calderone explained. “Things almost happen. Then they don’t. Characters talk about doing things for chapters at a time. And as I was writing, I realized the comedy was in that frustration; the same frustration every Latin student has had.”

Written with humor, meta-commentary, and deliberate fourth-wall breaks, Ecce Romani on a Shoestring! leaned into the textbook’s peculiar rhythms while celebrating its cultural legacy. Students created entire settings using only their bodies—trees, roads, fountains—while the script openly acknowledged the absurdity of dramatizing a language-learning tool.

Shoestring productions also come with their own visual language. One hallmark: every performer wears Converse sneakers, which is a staple of the Shoestring tradition and a signature feature on each show’s poster.

The performances at Fringe received praise from audiences and critics alike. It marked a standout moment in the Hopkins Drama Association’s (HDA) long history at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a history that stretches back more than a decade and reflects the School’s deep commitment to experiential learning, creative risk-taking, and global citizenship.

“This was a massively enthusiastic undertaking, and it is very difficult not to be encouraged by the infectiousness on stage by these young students,” wrote Donald C. Stewart of The British Theatre Guide. “Directorially, it is an interesting demonstration of the technique and the skills of this young cast.”

Rebecca Vines of Broadway Baby offered similar praise, noting the cast’s ability to engage their audience in a performance brought to life by the very teens the textbook was designed for. “The Shoestring Theatre brings their unique brand of storytelling magic to the book—and it is a funny, well-drilled jaunt through all twenty-seven chapters,” she wrote.

Hopkins first traveled to the Fringe in 2012, when nine students performed Hamlet and Other Theatrical Nightmares as part of the American High School Theatre Festival. Since then, the program—led by Calderone and fellow drama teacher Hope Hartup—has returned regularly, typically every other year, sometimes as performers but always as observers.

While Calderone guides the students’ own production, Hartup helps shape what they experience as audience members—curating a wide range of performances that include large-scale events, experimental theater, comedy, music, and student productions from around the world.

“Fringe isn’t about everything being perfect,” Hartup said. “It’s about exposure—seeing what’s out there, learning from what works, and even learning from what doesn’t.”

Each trip blends planned performances with spontaneous discovery: tickets purchased months in advance, recommendations gathered through word of mouth, and shows chosen on the fly based on buzz and curiosity. The goal, Hartup explained, is to give students a broad view of global theater and encourage them to ask what they can take away from every performance.

“From the very beginning, the goal was never just to put on a show,” Calderone added. “It was to get students out on the world stage—to see how other cultures tell stories, and to realize that theater is a global language.”

For Cora Turk-Thomas ’26, the production’s stage manager, that sense of global community was central to the experience.

“I’ve been a theater kid for basically my whole life,” she said. “And being around tons of other theater people and getting to see all of the amazing shows was super cool.”

At the Fringe, she added, the common thread was unmistakable. “You’re seeing people of all different ages just brought together by a love of theater.”

During the festival, Hopkins students spent their days performing, attending shows by artists from across the globe, and navigating a city transformed into a living arts ecosystem—where a comedy show might take place in a basement café and a Shakespeare adaptation could unfold on a street corner.

Beyond their own performances, students attended more than 30 Fringe shows and explored Edinburgh’s historic landmarks, from Edinburgh Castle to the National Museum of Scotland, where they received a private tour of the Roman collection. Beyond the attractions, just being around enthusiastic lovers of theater left its mark.

“It’s not uncommon for our drama kids to come home from the Fringe and immediately apply what they’ve seen,” Calderone said. “They take more risks. They trust simplicity. They understand that theater doesn’t need permission to be bold.”

Students also learned resilience—performing for packed houses one day and small audiences the next—and discovered that meaningful connection doesn’t depend on applause alone.

“The interaction with the audience feels a lot more personal,” van Bladel said. “You’re closer to them—you can actually see the people you’re performing for,” she added.

Dr. Orr’s presence at the opening performance didn’t exactly happen by accident.

With thousands of shows competing for attention (and a 10 a.m. time slot) Calderone was proactive in the weeks leading up to the festival, reaching out to local classics professors and fellow theater groups in hopes of filling the seats.

“I honestly thought most people would ignore it,” he said. “It was summer. I figured everyone would be gone.”

Instead, responses poured in. One professor offered to promote the show. Two others requested Zoom meetings to explore bringing students. Another mentioned knowing surviving contributors to Ecce Romani.

Less than a month later, Calderone found himself corresponding regularly with Dr. Orr.

“That’s when I realized that this isn’t just marketing,” Calderone said. “This is a conversation across generations.”

After the opening performance, Calderone introduced Dr. Orr to the audience, and the cast presented him with Hopkins memorabilia bearing Latin phrases—a gesture of thanks to someone whose work had shaped their own learning.

Orr later wrote to Calderone, “I enjoyed the performance and meeting the cast. They did you proud.”

For van Bladel, a Latin student and the daughter of an ancient languages professor, the significance was deeply personal. “This is the book that gets you from point A to point B,” she said. “So seeing the person behind it sitting in the audience—and being able to thank him—was really meaningful.”

This connection—made so far away from the Hill—was one of many the group made that week.

“Everybody there is your people,” Calderone said. “You’re standing in line next to someone from South Africa, Japan, Poland—everyone’s there for the same reason. That shared love of storytelling breaks down barriers really fast.”