The Outsiders was written by S.E. Hinton in 1967. The Socs, the rich teenagers, live on the West side of Tulsa, Oklahoma, while the Greasers, a poor working-class group, reside on the East side. Tensions rise when Johnny, a Greaser, kills Bob, a Soc. As a result, he and his friend Ponyboy flee to Windrixville, Oklahoma.
Since its publication, The Outsiders has been adapted into a movie in 1983 and a Broadway show in 2024. Some 8th graders from Iselin Middle School attended a field trip to see the live show in NYC on Thursday, April 3rd, 2025.
The school provided them with a coach bus to transport them to New York City, and they returned at around 5 o’clock.
Suhani Patel is a student who attended this trip, along with Lindsey Nix, an 8th-grade Language Arts teacher at Iselin Middle School. For Patel, this trip marked her first time traveling outside the state for a field trip.
“It was exciting! I wasn’t scared, I just followed the chaperone, and I was fine,” Suhani stated. Her favorite part of the show was the moment when the ‘Greasers’ and the ‘Socs’ met at the drive-in movie theater.
“I was a super huge fan of the book, and Ms. DiLonardo hyped it up like crazy!” said Patel. According to Suhani Patel, the trip to New York City took about an hour and a half.
Nix explained that she originated the idea for the field trip because she believed the kids would have a good time.
“I came up with the idea of the trip because we were reading the novel, and I heard about the play, and I thought it would be a great experience for students to see the story as a play,” Nix said.
Nix had seen several Broadway shows/plays. Her first time going to a show was in middle school, so she wanted kids to experience what she experienced. She concluded that everything went wonderfully.
Nix said, “It worked so smoothly, and we’re going to plan to go next year. Everything was perfect.”
A special moment for Nix during the trip was hearing how much the students who had never attended Broadway enjoyed it.
She stated, “I think, just seeing students who experienced a Broadway play for the first time, and hearing how much they enjoyed it. That made my day, it made it all worth it.”
