Performing Arts
Up the Down Staircase
November 17-19, 2011
Fall play kicks off LMS Fall Festival and Homecoming weekend at Lancaster Campus
The Lancaster Mennonite High School fall drama, Bel Kaufman’s Up the Down Staircase, is set for Thursday through Saturday, November 17-19, 7:30 nightly in the Calvin and Janet High Fine Arts Center. Danielle Hofstetter is the director.
This fast moving, comic, and touching show is about Sylvia Barrett, a young teacher who has just arrived to teach at an inner city high school in New York. She dreams of teaching her students about classic literature and how to be thoughtful observers but finds herself under a barrage of petty school regulations. Her students hardly know the meaning of education and challenge her from the moment they enter her homeroom. Barrett soon discovers that education and valuing students go far beyond books as she challenges them to overcome racial and economic prejudice to find the value they each possess. She must work hard to keep students from dropping out while trying to deal with a seemingly out-of-touch administration. She is forced to make an important decision. Should she stay? Or, will she drop out just like some of her students?
Of the 30 cast members, six major roles include Kate Blest as Sylvia Barrett, Francesca Melo-Rosario as Bea Schachter, David Longenecker as Paul Barringer, Trenton Ortiz as J.J. McCabe, Christian Lopez as Joe Ferone, and Helena Derksen as Alice Blake.
For Friday’s performance, come early to enjoy the school’s annual pig roast/chicken barbecue by Hess’s Barbecue, which runs 2:30-8:00 p.m. in Alumni Dining Hall. Take out is available 2:30-8:00, and dine in is 4:30-8:00. The cost is $9.50 for adults and $5.00 for children 3-12.
Both the play and the barbecue are part of the school’s Fall Festival and Homecoming weekend. Saturday’s other events include a country breakfast 8-11:30 in the Alumni Dining Hall, a 3 v 3 basketball tournament beginning at 8:30 a.m., the Iron Bridge Benefit 5K run at 9:30 a.m., and a vehicle show 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday evening there will be a benefit dinner and specialty auction (reservations required).
For more information about the entire weekend and to register for the benefit dinner and basketball tournament, go to lancastermennonite.org or call (717) 299-0436, ext. 706. To register for the run, go to www.ironbridgerun.org. The vehicle show is free.
TICKETS:
- $8.00 for adults; $5.00 for students (high school and younger)
- Tickets can be reserved by calling the box office at 299-0436, ext. 340.
- The box office will be open Nov. 14-18 from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.