Up the Down Staircase

There's a special happiness in walking into the still-empty classroom and for the first time writing her name on the blackboard. Students pour into the classroom - cautious, testing, challenging. Simultaneously, there's a blizzard of paperwork, warnings, contradictory orders, indecipherable instructions. Frantic, Sylvia begins to fear she doesn't even understand the language.

An experienced teacher translates: "Keep on file in numerical order" means throw in wastebasket. "Let it be a challenge" means you're stuck with it. "Interpersonal relationships" means a fight between kids. And "It has come to my attention" means you're in trouble. Soon Sylvia finds herself the most involved person in the school- involved in the start of a romance and in a near war with a discipline-over-everything administrator, but, most of all, involved in the unexpected, sometimes heartbreaking problems of her students.

The simple stage arrangement makes the play easy to produce and serves to convey a sense of the whole school. One critic said, "Seldom has a humorous work been at the same time so important."

One interior set with platform - Sound effects tape available by clicking here