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Up the Down Staircase

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

  • Full Length Play
  • Comedy
  • 100 minutes

  • Target Audience: Pre-Teen (Age 11 - 13), Teen (Age 14 - 18), Adult
  • Set Requirements: Interior Set

  • Performance Group:
  • Community Theatre, College Theatre / Student, High School/Secondary
"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.

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." 

  • Casting: 12M, 18F
  • Casting Attributes: Reduced casting (Doubling Possible)

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Up the Down Staircase Script Order Now

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. 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 int. set w/platform. Sound effects CD available.

$19.95