Robert F. Kennedy Junior High had a long...
Proud theatrical tradition.
Who could forget Scotty Gruenwald's
Or Tony Faranucci's towering Tevya in "Fiddler on the Roof"?
Sure, it wasn't Broadway. But for many of us...
The excitement brought out one undeniable feeling.
Total apathy.
Students, if I may - a moment of your time!
Stu-dents!
Who's that?
That's Mr. Weber - the new dramatics teacher.
Geek.
Definite geek.
He's not a geek!
The fall play this year...
will be Thornton Wilder's "Our Town".
Auditions...
I invite all of you to come, be a part of this...
haunting tapestry...of memory, and dreams.
At the buzzer - he shoots!
Ya think I should do it?
Do what?
Try out for the play.
You're kidding, right?
Last year in Miss White's class.
So I knew whereof I spoke.
No...That'd be a bad idea, Winnie.
Why? I think it could be fun!
Fun? Do you know how many speeches
I'm a pretty good memorizer.
Not to mention it's horrible.
I mean, you're standing out there all alone.
Your ears start to sweat - nah...
I probably wouldn't be good, anyway.
OK - so I'd rained on her parade.
I had to set her straight.
No one in their right mind volunteers to be in a play.
I'm gonna try out for that play.
Says here ya get of of seventh-period for rehearsals.
Seventh-period?
Gym?
Count me in...
Thank you all for coming.
Maybe Mr. Weber was a geek.
But he was a smart geek.
Theater offers you...
A chance...to surprise yourself.
To find a part of you...you didn't know you have.
Choose a part...
That speaks to you in some way.
I think I'm gonna try out for the stage manager.
Are you crazy? That's the biggest part on the play!
Yeah! I noticed!
That was Paul for ya.
Part ham...mostly boloney.
Me, I was looking for something with less visibility.
Preferably with no lines to learn.
Bingo!
Spotlight operator.
Eat your heart out, seventh-period!
Paul Pfeiffer.
Ahem!
The name of our town is Grover's Corners, New Hampshire,
just across the Massachussett's line.
Yep. Not for me, the pressures of auditioning.
Heck, this thing wouldn't even be turned
The date is May seventh, 1901.
The time...is just before dawn.
Thank you, Mr. Pfeiffer. That was...
Unique!
Thanks!
Ah! Gwendolyn Cooper?
But wait a minute!
Winnie - what are you doing?!
As for me, I'd rather have my children healthy...
Than bright.
I'm both, Mama, you know I am.
I'm the smartest girl in school for my age.
I have a wonderful memory.
Well, she couldn't say I didn't warn her!
Emily-Walk simply.
Papa - you're terrible!
One minute first you want me to straight,
Still, she wasn't all that bad.
I just can't sleep yet, Papa.
And the smell of Mrs. Soames...
Heliotrope.
Heliotrope. Can you smell it?
You had to admire her guts.
Thank you, Gwendolyn.
I just hoped she wouldn't take it too
I got the part!
Ya, well, uh...I figured you would...
Isn't it amazing?!
Yeah...Uh, I mean uh - no!
I have to go.
I have to call my mom at home,
What time is it in Chigaco?
Well, it was good to see her smiling.
But there's a broken heart...
Struck out.
You didn't get a part?
Not even the belligerent man.
"Is there no one in town aware of
Huh?
That's the belligerent man's line - I couldn't get it.
Now we'll never know if there is a part of me I didn't know I had.
I'll tell ya what.
Spotlight?
Yeah. Why not?
You know, Mr. Weber said that lighting's like another character.
He said that?
- And besides, we get out of seventh-period.
Uh-oh.
The look of a man possessed.
I think it sounds like fun!
I used to love school plays.
tortured John Proctor in "The Crucible"?
He's just...dramatic.
Will take place this afternoon.
I'd had some experience in this field, myself...
you have to memorize? I mean, it's
like taking eighteen biology tests!
Nah...I don't recommend it.
How about you?
Something simple, like...
on till the night before the play.
Reading for the part of Emily.
Who do you think you are, today?
and the next minute you call me names!
The moonlight's so wonderful.
hard when she didn't get the part.
and my dad in Chicago!
For every light on Broadway.
social injustice, and industrial inequality?"
Why don't you work the spotlight with me.
- A major character?
I knew that look.