Sign-up begins soon for the 32nd annual GHC trip to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, which takes students to Montgomery to see theatrical plays. This trip gives students the chance to experience Shakespeare’s plays performed live at the festival.

The trip is in April on the weekend of Saturday the 22nd and Sunday the 23nd, Shakespeare’s 453rd birthday.

The bus will leave from the Floyd campus Saturday morning and drive into Alabama. Saturday will consist of a side trip to the Little White House, a house at Warm Springs that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt frequented while fighting polio. It will also consist of a dinner theater performance of the musical “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” at Faulkner University.

Sunday will include lunch on the festival grounds and the play “The Tempest.”

The bus should return students to the Floyd campus by around 10:30 Sunday night.

Sign-up for the trip begins on Feb. 1 and is open until March 8. There are 55 spots for people to go on the trip, so space is limited, and claiming a spot once sign-up opens is advised. To hold the spot at sign-up there is a $50 deposit required. After that, the remaining balance of (money) is due on March 20.

Limited funds will be available to help a few students who can’t afford the full trip fee. ASF financial assistance forms will soon be available on the college’s ASF web page at http://www.highlands.edu/site/asf and in all GHC Student Life Offices. The forms need to be returned to a Student Life Officer by Feb. 22.

The full fee for the trip includes transportation on the bus to Montgomery, lodging at the hotel with breakfast, tickets to both plays, the side trip with lunch, dinner at the Faulkner Dinner Theater and lunch on the festival grounds on Sunday. The total cost per person is $135 for a double, $115 for a triple and $105 for a quad.

Extra credit for the trip is offered in all English classes. Other classes, like history courses, might offer extra credit for the festival and the side trip as well. To see if extra credit is offered, students may speak with individual teachers.

The trip is set up by Student Life and the humanities division. Any GHC student or employee is welcome to come, as well as non-GHC friends and family that a student or employee invites. Each person will have to pay the fee to participate. Trip sign-up will be handled by Student Life at all GHC locations.