The NHS Acting Ensemble is now in rehearsals for the Fall Drama production of Up the Down Staircase. Director Dr. Lori Carlin recently spoke about the upcoming production.

Q: The Acting Ensemble has announced that the fall play this year will be Up the Down Staircase, adapted from the 1965 book by Bel Kaufman. I know your ensemble gets to have some input on the selection of the Fall play. Tell us a little about this year's company, the plays you considered, and how you chose this play.  

Carlin:  The Northwood High School Acting Ensemble is a tradition dating back to long before my tenure. Students audition to become members of the Ensemble. The class number is kept very low in order to provide students with the experience and individual attention necessary to advance their study of theatre. Many of the Ensemble students go on to major or study theatre in college and beyond. I currently have two kids working in New York and one in LA in theatre-related careers. The group has an interesting dynamic and every Ensemble is different, hence I wait until school begins to select the production. Every year the Ensemble gets to weigh in on our choice for a fall show. The Ensemble is selected in April and has a summer reading list of potential plays (for production or study in another capacity). I would have loved to do “The Importance of Being Earnest” but we had too many cast members. The requirements for our fall show are that it has to fit our size, budget, interest, and potential audience. Beyond that, I turn the kids loose to find plays that interest them. This year they were a bit slow to get started and so I did a fair amount of research and finally proposed 4 or 5 different shows. We narrowed it down to "1984," "Up the Down Staircase," and "Books and Crooks." Each member of the Ensemble read the script and then we discussed the choices. "Books and Crooks" is from 1924 and while sweet, it was just … sweet. "1984" was really a hot topic for us, especially with the election—alas, we determined that the group was far too "snarky" to engage in such prolonged seriousness. That left us with "Up the Down Staircase." Several in the group loved the play and others were skeptical. We did agree, as an Ensemble, that it was our best choice and that we could do something significant with it. I feel like it was meant to be, especially since I am now the coordinator for new teachers at NHS and I am revisiting that first year of teaching along with all the joys and trials that accompany the experience of working in public education.

Q: Since this show is now 40+ years old, were there challenges or adjustments you had to make for a 2008 audience? What are the elements of this story about high school teachers and students that still ring true vs. references that are no longer relevant.

Carlin: Absolutely. We began by making the choice, as a group, to modernize the setting & time. The set is modernized. Some of the vernacular throughout the play has much more of a 1960s ring than present day slang. For example, the students use "hey, teach" to convey a lack of respect for Miss Barrett. Today, I think that might be deemed acceptable and perhaps welcome compared to some of the things we are called! There are also some issues of race that we had to address in a delicate manner, especially since the Ensemble has an unfortunate lack of diversity. My kids play numerous roles (the show will be fun to watch—if only to see how fast they have to switch gears) and each of their characters has a distinct quality to convey. As far as how the story itself relates to today, I can only speak from my own experience and the terror of being a first year teacher. I think that the educators who attend our show will "get" much more than anyone else. There is the, albeit necessary, but overwhelming paperwork to deal with and then trying to change the world in each and every lesson plan—that first year is a bear! The show demonstrates how Sylvia changes throughout the course of a semester & how she is able to persevere at the same time that her students are overcoming tremendous odds. As a teacher, this show just speaks to me. It is hard to explain to people in the outside world how and why we continue to do what we do - this show, in some small measure, demonstrates that the kids are the single most important factor when one is called to be an educator. We hope that our audience—educators, administrators, students, parents, and community members will be able to relate to their own schooling experiences in this show and that they will find renewed appreciation for that one special teacher who made a difference.

Up the Down Staircase runs Thursday–Saturday, November 13–15 at 7 pm in the Benjamin J. Lee Auditorium on the Northwood High School campus.