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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, April 20, 2012 · 34 Old schoolhouse not so different from today By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF With a degree in drama, teacher Lana Borsellino has worked with many children, from Grades 2 to 12, on stage and in the studio. So when she took some time off for professional development this year, it would have been the first year she would not be directing students in a theatrical show. However, as luck would have it, the Burl-Oak Theatre Group is presenting the play Schoolhouse, written by Canadian playwright Leanna Brodie. The show has a cast of 22 performers, from as young as age seven to those who are in their 70s and many of those performers play school children. Schoolhouse opened yesterday at The Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts. The play is set in 1938 rural Ontario. Much of what happens takes place in a one-room schoolhouse where two lives change. A new teacher, 18-year-old Melita Linton, who is dealing with an unmanageable group of students, is faced with a new challenge when delinquent teenager, Ewert, is put into the classroom. "The troublemaker child carries the dark secret of abuse," said Borsellino. "He's been in a training school. He's been terribly abused and he's very badly broken. What this is trying to teach is acceptance and healing, those lessons that teachers have to teach and we all have to learn." Artscene nikki wesley / oakville beaver / @halton_photog Johnson as Flossie, Christian Borsellino as Dwight and David Prokupek as Russell stand by during Burl-Oak Theatre Group's rehearsal of Schoolhouse, which opened yesterday. One of the reasons Borsellino, a teacher of 22 years, chose to direct this play was because it features children. It's the children that Borsellino loves to direct. "It's miraculous what happens. You'll take a student who's never done anything on stage and you just watch what can happen," she said. When directing young people, she said many surprises occur that don't happen when grownups familiar with theatre take to the stage. "This play has kids in it, but it's not a kids play. It's a wonderful combination," she said. Further, despite the time difference, she said there are many similarities between schools today and the one in the play. "When I read this play, being a teacher, there were certain things that jumped out at me. I just found in school: Miss Linton, played by Stephanie Catricala, scolds Ewart, played by Marcus Djan-Adams, as Shawna myself saying: `Wow, even back then, things were the same for teachers.' If someone is a teacher in that audience, they're going to go, `Oh, I totally understand that'," she said. "The other side is that every one of us has been a student. If you've never taught, it doesn't matter, but we've all had that experience in school where maybe you've been bullied by an authority figure, you've tried to be accepted by somebody in your class, all of that. This will touch everybody." Having the run of the classroom in the play is Stephanie Catricala, who grew up in Oakville, who portrays schoolhouse teacher, Melita. There are similarities between Melita and the 24-year-old actor, who is in her last year of post-secondary education. Melita is fresh out of school and has just entered the working field and Catricala is about to do so too, having studied theatre, linguistics and is currently finishing TV writing and producing at Humber College. However, the similarities are few after that. "The mentality is very different. We now, at 18 years old, go into university. She, at 18, is starting her life," the actor said. "There's this very unique innocence to her that she can handle something that she really can't. She's going to keep all these kids educated. She's going to do it and prove her worth." Catricala said she has to portray the innocence of the schoolhouse teacher. "Here's this young girl moving to the country and she's still got these ideals about the way the world should be and the way you are," said the actor. Nearly half the cast in the play is comprised of actors who are high school aged or younger. Actor Marcos Djan-Adams, who plays the 15-year-old Ewert, is in his final year of high school. Catricala said her character has to use patience, honesty and See Lead page 35