Introduction to Schoolhouse with notes from playwright Leanna Brodie
About the play:
Schoolhouse, published by TalonbooksThe time: 1938. The place: S.S. #1 Jericho school, a one-room schoolhouse in a farming area just outside the fictional village of Baker's Creek. Melita Linton, an 18-year-old teacher fresh out of Normal School, or teachers' training college, has been handed a one-room schoolhouse and eight schoolchildren, ranging in age from five years old to 15 years old. But the biggest difference between the children is not their ages, but simply who they are, and what their situation in life is. In the play we go through part of a school year with Miss Linton, as she teaches these children, and tries to address those differences, encourage their strengths, and help them face their challenges.
The person who wrote the play, Leanna Brodie is an actor and writer, born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She herself was educated in two-room country schools (Bewdley Public School and Plainville Public School) in rural Ontario, and then went to a larger high school, and then the University of Guelph. She is the author of a number of plays which have been produced across Canada, and around the world.
She was asked to create Schoolhouse for the Blyth Theatre Festival in Ontario, which features new and classic Canadian plays. It went on to be performed a number of times, in a number of different forms, as the play was written and rewritten – because it is very common for playwrights to create many drafts or revisions of their plays, and try them out, onstage with actors, before they finally settle on a final version of the script. The production that you are going to see is based on the script that the author finally published.
When Brodie was asked to write a play about early twentieth century one-room schoolhouses, she discovered that, perhaps because of her experience in small rural schools, she was quite curious about them, and the mostly women who taught in them. Says Brodie in her "Notes on Production for Schoolhouse "… In the old days, school teachers were often the only female professionals for miles around, and they must've had some fascinating tales to tell….” Considering that “For more than one hundred years, all the children in a rural area passed through the same four walls...” one thing that Brodie wanted to explore in her play was “ How much did the one-room schoolhouse shape its community… And how much to the community shaped the school?”
But Brodie found out, as she was writing the play, that she wasn’t only exploring historical themes. When she was asked why ultimately, she was writing the play, she answered that she wanted to tell “a story about insiders and outsiders: about the fact that every time you draw circle, some things are inside the circle, and some things aren't.”
So while the play may be set in 1938, some of the main themes of the play may be very familiar to you in your everyday, modern life: inclusion and exclusion, being in the “In Crowd” or outside it, freaks, geeks, Little Miss Perfects, and bullies, and the very special people who can step in, and make a difference in a kid’s life.
We hope you enjoy Schoolhouse.
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