Spring Play Tickets on Sale: Up the Down Staircase

Up the Down Staircase, a play based on Bel Kaufman’s novel about a first-year teacher’s experiences in a public school, will be presented at 7:30 p.m., Friday, March 23, and 2:00 and 7:30 p.m., Saturday, March 24, in the ATO Chapel. Tickets are $3 for Trinity students and $5 for other audience members. Full-time Trinity employees are eligible for two complimentary tickets to the production. Tickets can be obtained by contacting Kristin Lindholm at x7169 or by email; buying them from cast and crew members in the Waybright Center on Tuesday–Friday this week; or in the lobby of the ATO Chapel before each performance.

Up the Down Staircase, dramatized by Christopher Sergel, is a show that blends comedy and serious themes as it examines day-to-day life in a high school through the eyes of a novice teacher. Although the play is based on a novel from the 1960s, the themes are remarkably relevant today: lack of sufficient resources in a school district, bureaucracy, the impact of family problems on student performance, the disconnect between what a teacher thinks he or she can accomplish and what “real life” in a high school is like, relational difficulties, and the difference a teacher can sometimes make in a student’s life. This play is being produced by special arrangement with The Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois.