A group of Bermudian students are bound for Barbados in December to participate in the seventh Caribbean Secondary Schools Drama Festival.The Bermuda Shakespeare Schools Festival (BSSF) was invited to coordinate a cast to participate back in February.Students representing six local public and private high schools were selected.The team of 14 comprises nine student performers and five support staff who will travel to the festival.While there they will be making presentations about Bermuda at schools. Cast members include Dylan Hollis, Marc Rodrigues, Marcus Smith, Tess Spencer, Ashanti Stovell, Treasure Tannock, Jade Weaver and India Wilson.BSSF Board member Conchita Ming said: “We discussed the process of selecting a director and it was agreed that it would be best to choose a local director from outside of the school system in order to maintain objectivity and fairness in the selection of the cast.“The BSSF Committee reviewed proposals from three directors regarding the Caribbean Secondary School Drama Festival and selected Alan Smith as the director. “He proposed to mount an abridged version of the play by Dr Kim Dismont Robinson, ‘Emancipation: A Love Story’, a docudrama about Bermuda’s history.“We are very pleased to have Mr Smith as our director and thrilled to be presenting an original work by a Bermudian playwright.”Education Minister Nalton Brangman said the upcoming trip presents “a wonderful chance to link with other drama programmes in the Caribbean”.“We are very proud to partner with BSSF and give our students an opportunity to appear on an international stage,” he said.He also thanked Ms Ming “who has taken the lead to get us to this point”.The BSSF Festival was started in 2008 as part of the UK Shakespeare International Schools Festival and is held annually.The BSSF Festival complements the GCSE curriculum, involving up to 150 secondary school students, ages 14-18, performing abridged versions of William Shakespeare’s plays.Participating students are also eligible for BSSF Drama Workshops and Scholarships.