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Young actors make 'History'

By Rich Copley rcopley@herald-leader.com

Matthew Leonard was chatting with one of his Vassar College friends on Facebook when she asked, ”Have you done anything this summer besides History Boys?“

Leonard recalls, ”I thought about it and said, "No, I really haven't.' I've done a little work for my dad, but other than that, it's been Lord of the Flies and now History Boys.“

That's been the summer for the rising Vassar sophomore and just under a dozen of his theatrical compatriots in their final years of high school or early years of college.

The group started the summer working on SummerFest's production of Flies, the stage version of William Golding's classic novel about school boys stranded on a desert island. They are ending it working on History Boys, Alan Bennett's Tony Award-winning play about school boys struggling to get into elite universities.

”Lord of the Flies is just such raw, human emotion,“ Leonard says. ”It's visceral, Ralph weeping for humanity at the end.

”With History Boys, it's this ensemble group, and they're together as a unit. Some fractures occur, but it's not a rip like Lord of the Flies.“

Actor David Jackson says, ”They're very complementary shows. Different in many ways, but complementary.“

While Lord of the Flies is a fight for physical survival, History Boys is a fight for intellectual survival.

It's set in a British secondary school where two teaching cultures collide as the boys struggle to prepare for entrance exams to Oxford or Cambridge — to them, anything else is glorified high school. The old school teacher, Hector, advocates acquiring knowledge to be a well-rounded individual. He clashes with Irwin, a new teacher who focuses on strategies for passing the exams.

The group of young actors wanted to do the play last summer, but rights to the 2006 Tony winner for best play were not available.

The summer of '07, they feared, might have been their last chance to perform ­together. Director Jacob ­Sexton brought the group together under the banner of the Apprentice Players in spring 2007 to present Dog Sees God, a play that took the Peanuts comic strip characters into a high school world where they had to deal with sex, drugs, and peer and parental pressure. Many of the same actors showed their skills in SummerFest's productions of Romeo and Juliet and The Crucible, and then a bill of one-act plays a year ago at the Downtown Arts Center.

But then, they were off to college. Of the group of five gathered in a room at Common Grounds Coffee Shop on a Tuesday afternoon, Sexton and Jesse Hungerford went to Northern Kentucky University; Leonard went to Vassar in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; and Jackson went to Fordham in New York City. Chris Stahl is entering his senior year of high school at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan.

For most of the guys, the show will close just days, or even hours, before they have to take off for fall semester.

”My mother's already getting on to me: "You need to get packed, you don't have any time,'“ Leonard says.

Sexton says, ”That's been kind of a theme of this summer: There hasn't been any time. But it's been wonderful, getting to be this productive. When you think about it, what does the average teenager do when they come home for the summer from college? Do two plays, one of which they spearhead and initiate? That's a pretty cool thing.

”The experiences I've had this summer surpass anything I did last year in school because this is a performing art. You learn by doing.“

Stahl says, ”When this is all over, we're going to look back at this summer and say, "What just happened?'“

Whether it will happen again would seem to be an open question, as the students will be moving into junior and senior years and the need to do internships and apprenticeships to build their professional résumés.

But they are confident they will work together again.

”I don't know where that will be,“ Sexton says. ”If it's in Lexington, phenomenal. If it's in Philadelphia, great.“

As Sexton mentions Philly, the other four guys in the room start snickering and erupt in laughter.

”Philadelphia?“ Jackson asks. Another says, ”Where's that come from?“

Leonard notes, ”None of us live in Philadelphia.“

Maybe Apprentice Players will tour.

But, wherever it is, ­Sexton concludes, ”If we're all ­together, it will be difficult not to do a show.“