On preparing for the role of Posner…
Well, beyond the textual analysis and the dramaturg provided by Drew and the other actors, the extensive elocution lessons provided by our French and British coaches….I watched a lot of British movies and sitcoms. This play has an excellent “British” sense of humor and I needed to get into the style of wit. I also just thought back to my awkward years of high school.

On what is compelling about Posner…
His desire to be loved and wanted by others. It is both disturbing and endearing.

Hopeful takeaways…
To be honest, I am not quite sure. I would love to see some open dialogue on the role of education and the impact of preparation for secondary education on lives of youth.

Favorite scene(s)…
The discussion of the Holocaust and the end of the play. Both, I believe, are so emotionally charged that they just resonate with me.

Favorite Character(s)…
Timms is a front runner due to his awesome humor. However, the headmaster is also one to watch for, Jon does a phenomenal job with a great character.

On working with Available Light Theatre…
This has been a dream come true for me. I have been watching AVLT shows for some time now and being able to work with Drew and Sam and the AVLT staff is a treat. They have been truly welcoming and super-supportive.

On preparing for the role of Irwin…
4 years in an all boys Catholic school was a good start… for Irwin in particular I spent a lot of time looking at the way he speaks. Particularly his was way of attacking a question from all angles.

On the character…
He’s very much in between the two sides of the school. He’s a new teacher, and not quite old enough to feel comfortable with the faculty or staff, but he’s too old to be one of the boys. He fits in just a bit everywhere, but isn’t entirely comfortable anywhere.

Hopeful takeaways…
I hope they take a second and look back on their high school experiences. I also think there’s a lot in the play about the value of history and language, and that’s never a bad thing to go home thinking about!

On playwright Alan Bennett…
I absolutely love the use of language in this play. He takes very complex concepts and very heightened language, and somehow presents it in such a way that it’s never over the heads of the audiences and feels very natural.

Favorite scene…
Personally: any scene where Irwin is teaching the boys. There’s a few of them and they kind of outline his relationship with the boys – he’s most in his element when he gets to teach. Not involving
me: I’m loving the softer musical moments of the show – they break up the heavy dialogue and add some great emotion.

Favorite character…
Rudge. I love that he makes his own way and does it in his own, very laid back, style.

On working with Available Light Theatre…
The whole group has been fantastic. This is my first AVLT show and you can tell there’s a real sense of family there. Drew’s a very open director, and he’ll let you know what he’s thinking while still giving you enough room to play; and the cast has been a ton of fun. There’s a great energy with this group and I think it really shows on the stage.

On preparing for the role of Crowther…
I spent a lot of time studying the British school system. I also researched the people, poems, songs, works of art, etc. that we mention in the play.

Thoughts on Crowther…
Crowther is not very talkative nor does he like to speak his mind for or against a cause but he is very involved in theatre. This to me says that he is more comfortable on stage being heard than he is among his peers and teachers.

Hopeful takeaways…
I hope the audience decides never to take any knowledge, however insignificant, for granted.

Favorite scene…
My favorite scene in the play is the French scene during Hector’s class. It gives a great insight into the boys’ education and also Hector’s teaching strategies, not to mention there are a few good laughs.

Favorite character…
Lintott is my favorite character in this play because of her passion for teaching and, of course, her colorful vocabulary. Nobody else could say “twat” so many times and get away with it.

On working with Available Light Theatre…
Working with AVLT has been one of the best theatre experiences I have had. This extremely talented cast and crew work, play, challenge each other, and perform together so perfectly it’s no wonder why the play is at the level of perfection that it is.

On preparing for the role of Lockwood…
I prepared for my role by reading through the script and, because my role doesn’t speak very much, I basically chose a random high school personality, and tweaked from there. Lockwood seems to have evolved so much in the last month.

Thoughts on Lockwood…
I find Lockwood fascinating because he grows up to be a Magistrate. Such influence, such potential. Yet, so young and naive.

Hopeful takeaways…
I hope the audience can learn to embrace shades of grey instead of black and white a little more after experiencing the play.

Favorite scene…
I really enjoy the the scene where Hector breaks down during his class. John Kuhn’s acting inspires a tone of shock and bewilderment.

Favorite character…
My favorite character in the play is Mrs. Lintott, the only female. She plays an interesting role in it all, mainly offering a logical influence.

On working with Available Light Theatre…
My experience working with the cast and Drew has been very nice. The most professional group I’ve been a part of.

On preparing for the role of Scripps…
I prepared for this role like I prepare for most. Once I feel I have started to pick up on the characters attributes I try and locate those specific characteristics within myself. I always feel if I can relate and emphasis myself the character becomes more real.

Thoughts on Scripps…
His sense and respect for God and Religion. He has an unending faith that this particularly unique in this show.

Hopeful takeaways…
I hope this show will make the audience examine some of their own relationships after the show and give them a chance to think about how they affect others directly and indirectly.

Favorite scene…
My favorite scene would have to be the Holocaust debate, simply because its the ideal chance to see the underlying battle between old and new world education.

Favorite character…
My favorite character would have to be Dakin, his complexity is unmatched in this show.

On working with Available Light Theatre…
This is my first show in Columbus and it has been a very rewarding experience. AVLT is a highly professional company that contains the creativity to build a very artistically beautiful production.

On preparing for the role of Akthar…
I studied a Sheffield accent like the other boys. I looked up the beliefs of a Muslim so I had an idea of what the religion entails. I also had known about this show for a long time and done research on it so I had a fair handle on what the show was about and what it meant to me

Thoughts on Akthar…
He is the only Muslim in this group of boys. Posner and Scripps are the only other characters that have a reference to what religion they are. Posner is Jewish and Scripps is Catholic. During one scene in the show we are talking about the Holocaust and one corner of the circle the three of us are all sitting together. Why? All three of these religious groups that each one of us belongs to have been persecuted at one point in history. By having all three groups represented shows that history just keeps repeating itself over and over again in different forms.

Hopeful takeaways…
I hope they come away asking them self what education really is? Who is it for? Is the textbook answer always right? This play does not give you answers, instead, it just makes you think about the different options skillfully set down in front of you and lets you make your own choice. Letting you make your own choice — that is what education should do.

Thoughts on playwright Alan Bennett…
The only Alan Bennett work I was familiar with was this play. I think he has a knack for writing deeply developed characters and provoking plots. Theater’s job is never to simply answer questions, it’s job is to make sure the questions get asked.

Dayton’s favorite scene…
The scene in which the boys take over Irwin’s classroom. It is one of the most fun to play in the show for me. We get to really cut loose, let the new teacher have it and it is a blast.

Favorite character(s)…
I really love each and every one of these characters so I don’t really have a favorite per se. All of these boys and the teachers are written so well that it is hard not to love them all. They each bring something that really captures what it is like to be an 18-year old boy getting ready to go to college. Remembering that time in life and how easy it was makes you appreciate that experience more now than you did then.

On working with Available Light Theatre…
This is my second Show with AVLT and I could not be happier to being do a show that has been on my bucket list from the moment I read it as a teenager. This is also my second time working with Drew Eberly and Jordan Fehr, John Kuhn and Cate Blair-Wilhelm. These guys are so great and talented that it has been really exciting to see what they will throw out there next. John really threw himself into things during one rehearsal and let’s just say it was table-shattering. I absolutely love the company and the people in it. They are the most supportive group of artists that you could ask for. And I feel privileged to work with them again. Cheers!

On preparing for the role of Rudge…
I got the script from the library the moment I knew that AVLT was doing the show. I had heard of the show, due to the Tony Awards, and immediately was interested in it, due to my background in education. Prior to getting the role, I didn’t do much to prepare for the role, because I didn’t know which role I would get and didn’t know which role I wanted. There are no bad roles in this show, so I was excited either way. Once getting the role, I began evaluating what I thought my character’s relationship would be like with each of the other characters, and I began to think about what Rudge stands for, what he believes in, and where he fits in with all the others.

Thoughts on Rudge…
Rudge is a simply spoken, relatively quiet character throughout, who’s doubted by everyone else, yet he has moments where he comes off as smarter than everyone else. In many ways, Rudge plays a different “game” from all of the other boys, but it works for him.

Hopeful takeaways…
I think that the audience will form opinions about each character’s motivations and actions. I believe that audiences will ultimately feel moved by the story and the characters of this show. An impression will be made. Each audience member could potentially take something different from the show, due to the show being filled with stuff to take.

Jay’s favorite scene(s)…
I enjoy the scenes of the play that involve the battles between Hector and Mr. Irwin. I feel that these scenes are rich with opportunities for the actors and the audience to feel involved.

Favorite characters…
I think one of my favorite attributes of this play is that no character is written to be perfect, which makes it all feel very real, and it makes me feel very connected to my character and the other characters on stage. I feel that this is a coming of age story for almost every character in the show, which has been so fun to be a part of.

On working with Available Light Theatre…
Although I’ve never worked with Drew [Eberly] as a director before, he is an extremely talented actor/singer/performer, so I’ve enjoyed feeling comfortable in his command. This cast rocks in such a diverse way, due to it only including 1 AVLT company member. Speaking of AVLT, they totally rock! They are, without question, the absolute best people in Columbus to work with. My first show with AVLT was Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, so I simply couldn’t stay away when I found out that they were doing History Boys.

On preparing for the role of Dakin…
For this show, aside from learning lines and doing accent work for both British and French dialects, I have been watching a TON of the best TV and films from the UK, to get a real feel for how they talk and act. The replacements of the sounds isn’t always enough, if you can get the sentence cadence and body language into your character then you have really sold it. As for the rest, I can readily identify with some of the things these students are going through on the human side, so that just has to be tapped into.

Thoughts on Dakin…
Dakin is interesting because he is that overconfident 18 year old badboy, who thinks he is going to live forever, but at the same time has some pretty human moments in the show. I am not that oversexualized badboy in real life, so that’s been interesting.

Hopeful takeaways…
Firstly, the moral grey areas are one of the strongest things about this play. You like Hector, but you don’t always like what he does. The headmaster has our best interests in mind, but they happen to line up with his own selfish interests. Secondly, the dialogue about education is very important to me. I was taught for the test, and I was very good at taking tests, and I remember so little of that part of my education now that I am an adult and that makes me very sad.

On playwright Alan Bennett…
I was not familiar with his work at all, other than this show so I can’t comment on anything other than The History Boys. That being said, this play is fantastically written and brilliantly captures a time and a place in England that is very different, and yet so similar to when I was growing up.

Favorite scene(s)…
I have a couple of favorite scenes, but I think they are all about the same thing at heart. There is something very compelling about moments when the teacher-student relationship gets challenged. Mrs Lintott has a line in the show that says something to the affect of “the hardest thing for a student to learn is that a teacher is a human being, and the hardest thing for a teacher to learn is to try not to tell them.” There are several moments in the show where this boundary is tested, and its always very compelling.

Favorite character(s)…
This is an odd question because you definitely have favorites for most of the play, but in the back 10 mins of the show some of that stuff can change with the visions of their futures. Within the actual context of the main show, I think Irwin might be my favorite character. He is an extremely human character who puts in airs in the classroom, but is far less confident in reality. He is easily identifiable for this because he is not long out of school. At the same time he is very observant of the way the world works, very intelligent, and yet somehow is sometimes the ‘bad-guy’ because of his part in the education debate.

On working with Available Light Theatre…
Well, as a company member of AVLT, I always have a positive experience, because I am one of the people trying to build one. I am happy to be part of Drew’s directorial debut with AVLT after having acted with him in so many plays.

On preparing for the role of Mrs. Lintott…
In addition to the technicalities of continually reading and studying the script, working with a dialect coach, and looking up a number of English words and phrases, I read synopses and reviews of the play. I looked into “Durham University” ~ where my character attended college ~ to find that it is second in prestige to “Oxbridge.”

Thoughts on Mrs. Lintott…
“Keep calm and carry on” seems to apply to Lintott. She takes everything in stride… Doesn’t get sucked into the drama of life. She just keeps on keeping on.

Hopeful takeaways…
There’s a lot going on in this play. I look forward to talk-backs where audience members may choose to tell us that very thing!

Favorite scene…
I love the scene where Lintott lays it out for the boys – and teachers! – about how women have been shoved aside throughout history.

Favorite characters…
I have come to love lintott, but the character of posner touches my heart. He wants so much to grow up and experience everything. He’s so open and vulnerable.

On working with Available Light Theatre…
It’s been awhile since I’ve worked with a cast and crew made up mostly of artists that I didn’t already know. It’s been fun to see the on-stage relationships grow. They’re all terrific!

Preparation for the role of Hector…
Drew and his team have done a great job providing research information for this particular show. Getting notes to us about specific poets or quotations that are referenced in the play. All typical parts of an actor’s prep work.

Thoughts on Hector…
Hector is a very interesting, deeply flawed character. As an educator I am much like him in his approach to the educational process. His belief that all knowledge is precious and that “teaching to the test” or just to acquire “gobbets” of information is the wrong way to inspire the student, again is something I believe as well. His abuse of the trust between student and teacher by his sexual actions is awful. His inadequate and subjective rationalizations only make his actions worse. And yet there is something about the passion he brings to the educational process that engages the students.

Hopeful takeaways…
I would hope that the audience leaves the performance thinking about how we value the educational process, and how we need to re-evaluate its priorities.

John’s favorite scene…
Favorite scene… that’s a hard one. I’ve come to enjoy all my scenes as Hector. I think the scene that embodies his beliefs most firmly is the “shared ” teaching scene with Irwin. He struggles in this scene to make Irwin and the students understand that there are some events in history, in this case the Holocaust, that can’t be discussed in a detached, scholarly way. That to do so demeans the pain of the victims.

John’s favorite character…
Hector is my favorite character. For the reasons previously discussed.

On working with Available Light Theatre…
This has been a fun experience working again with AVLT.