Up the Down Staircase

From the book by Bel Kaufman. Dramatized by Christopher Sergel.

Cast:  12men, 18+women.

 "Hi, Teach!" are the first words to greet attractive Sylvia Barrett. 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.

Characters

Dr Maxwell Clarke                                   High School principal

Sylvia Barrett                                              Members of the faculty

Beatrice Schachter

Paul Barringer

J.J. McHabe                                                Administrative Assistant

Ella Friedenberg                                        Guidance Counselor

Frances Egan                                               School Nurse

Charlotte Wolf                                          Librarian

Samuel Bester                                             Administrator

Sadie Finch                                                 Chief Clerk

Lou Martin                                                  Students in Room 304

Lennie Nuemark

Carole Blanca

Alice Blake

Vivian Paine

Rusty O’Brien

Linda Rosen

Jose Rodriguez

Carrie Blaine

Harry Kagan

Jill Norris

Rachel Gordon

Elizabeth Ellis

Charles Arrons

Edward Williams

Joe Ferone

Helen Arbuzzi                                             Other students

Francine Gardner

Katherine Wolzow

Ellen                                                              Sylvia’s friend