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While they’re not leaving today, some  Fredericton High School students are  hoping to land in Scotland next summer for a once in a lifetime experience.

If they can raise the money, they’ll be taking part in the annual Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, where they’ll perform the musical The Mikado during the three week theatre showcase. While the students are already flying high with excitement, their director Dwight Dunfield says they all have a lot of work to do before they can reach their goal.

To send the 25 students, himself and six other chaperones it’s going to cost close to $200,000. If they can’t raise the money themselves, the families will have to foot the bill.

“ It can be a lot of work and money, and for parents it can be tough and intimidating. But the more the students hear about it the more excited they get,” Dunfield says. “We just need to focus on why we’re doing this.”

They’re doing it for the opportunity to get a first hand glimpse of what the professional theatre world would look like. While many of these students may not pursue a career in acting, they will get to live that lifestyle for two weeks.

Dunfield says the first week after they arrive, the students will spend a few days in London, seeing the sights. Then they will get to take in a musical performance in London’s West End. Once they arrive in Edinburgh, they will get to strut their stuff four times during the festival.

The Edinburgh festival is the world’s largest. It has been attracting millions of theatre goers for over 60 years. This past summer roughly 32,000 performances took place during the three week festival. Every possible venue in the city becomes transformed into a stage, and groups are even encouraged to take up busking in the streets to attract more crowds to their shows.

Fredericton High was only one of seven Canadian schools nominated to take part in the American High School Theatre Festival. Organizers of the festival are trying to provide the opportunity for all students involved to perform on an international stage. They will be covering the costs of the venues where students will be performing and the travel for the trip. Dunfield says he was asked to join the other directors on a test trip to this past summer’s festival to get a feel for the atmosphere.

Although he says he was initially intimidated by the other teachers and directors, he couldn’t have had a better experience.

“ I got to see what was going on and I’m sold. Until I saw it I was thinking it was a lot of money, was it worth it? It’s definitely worth it” he says. “ They try to provide quality. They’re not trying to go cheap, they’re trying to provide quality experience that includes a tour of the Trossachs, and Sterling Castle, so there’s some history there too.”

Those initial apprehensions he had regarding the trip also disappeared when he had the chance to watch some performances by the other schools. He says the Fredericton High students were either on par, or better than the majority of them.

Even with his renewed confidence in the students’ abilities, there is still one obstacle standing between them and Scotland.

Money.

But the students are determined to go, and are pulling out all the stops to raise the rest of the money they need. Out of the $200,000, they already managed to raise over $32,000 in just two months of fund raising. While they’ve tried a few different methods for raising money, the one that’s proving to be the biggest success is the loonie walk.

The students go door to door asking for one loonie per house. They’re splitting up the city into different areas, and are covering a new area each week with the ultimate goal of covering the entire city. And Dunfield is optimistic his students will be able to reach their $200,000 goal by next summer.

The students will have the opportunity to practice performing the play this fall as their annual school production. The curtain will rise on a larger scale version of The Mikado from November 25-28 at FHS’s Tom Morrison Theatre. Tickets will range from 12 to 16 dollars and can be purchased at the door as well as The Playhouse box office.