Schools

SV Students Take on Teachers in Classic 'Up the Down Staircase'

The district's actors will honor educators in this week's performances.

Call it a matter of role-reversal.

For the spring play, members of the Thespians will be playing teachers in Up the Down Staircase, a classic drama based on the novel by Bel Kaufman.

Senior Julianna Hritz plays the lead role of Sylvia Barrett, a rookie teaching in New York's inner-city Calvin Coolidge High, which has demanding students—and administrators.

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According to Amber Hugus, the play’s director and an English teacher at the , bells at the school ring at the wrong time, a promising student drops out and a girl with a crush on a teacher gets suicidal. Through it all, school officials are most concerned with rules and regulations. There even is a separate up and down staircases, which is from where the play draws its name.

How Barrett handles her first year in education is at the heart of the play. Despite a setting in the 1950s, Hugus said many of the themes and issues Barrett faces still are relevant today. 

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“It’s her first year as a teacher and her first day of school isn’t everything she thought it would going to be,” Hugus said.

Playing teachers also hit home with the students. Hritz, who plans to study education next year at Ashland University in Ohio, said she could see herself being Barrett.

“I read the script and I fell in love with it,” she said.

Jamie Walters, who many will remember as Mrs. Potts in the , said her role as faculty member Bea Schacter gave her a new appreciation for teachers.

“I really like we all can relate to it,” she said. “Hearing the kids just shout and get noisy, it makes you want to shush everyone in class.”

This is the first time the Thespians have not put on a children’s play (last year's performance was of Law & Order: Fairytale Unit) for the district’s elementary students.

Admittedly, the teens, described by Hugus as just a funny group, were not excited about performing a non-comedy—at least at first. They soon came to love the idea of acting in the classic drama.

“I wanted them to do something different,” Hugus said “This is one of my favorites.”

Ben Paget, who played the Beast in the spring musical, admitted he never had heard of Up the Down Staircase. Now, the senior is enjoying his role as Paul Barringer, an arrogant and handsome English teacher who is obsessed with writing.

“I love the writing,” he said. “It’s very intelligent. It’s very clever. “

After his comic turn as Gaston in Beauty in the Beast, Conner Gillooly said he is relishing playing J.J. McHabe, an administrative assistant in charge of supplies—and discipline

“I’ve always preferred straight plays,” he said. “I’m really into developing a character and creating a real human experience.”

Because the play is based on a first year educator, Hugus said the cast and crew would honor all teachers who attend the shows by recognizing them during the performance and singing to them. The Thespians also will raffle off a basket of various gifts and vouchers. Any teacher from any district who attends the show will be given free admission, as well as the chance to be recognized for their service, Hugus said.

The show takes place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the . The cost is $5 for adults and $3 for students, with free admission for any teacher, current or retired, with proof of employment. The play is presented in two acts with a 10-minute intermission.  


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