The drama program \u201d\u201d at Harry S. Truman High School \u201d\u201d opened this year with one more deficit: its galvanizing teacher, Lou Volpe, retired in June after more than 40 years showing students in an economically slumped, culturally narrow community how to strive for excellence, grapple with challenging ideas, empathize with people different from themselves and enlarge their notions of who they might become. And he brought their theatrical achievements glowing national attention. Under Volpe\u2019s direction, Truman students presented pilot high school versions of \u201cLes Mis\u00c3\u00a9rables,\u201d\u009d \u201cRent\u201d\u009d and \u201cSpring Awakening\u201d\u009d \u201d\u201d premieres that would determine whether these shows would become available to high schools generally. (All three triumphed.)<\/p>\n
Being available, however, hasn\u2019t made all the plays Volpe directed popular \u00c2\u00adchoices at other schools. Part of his success \u201d\u201d pedagogical and theatrical \u201d\u201d Sokolove suggests, comes from his \u201cedgy\u201d\u009d repertory. Not for the sake of sensation, but to engage kids in urgent contemporary social debate, he often selects works that raise the eyebrows, and even occasional ire, of local conservatives who object to frank representations of adolescent sexuality (hetero and homo), addiction, rebellion \u201d\u201d the usual flash points in the old culture wars. Of the 25,000-plus high school theater programs in the country, fewer than 150 have produced \u201cRent.\u201d\u009d At Truman, 300 kids \u201d\u201d about one in five students there \u201d\u201d auditioned for it. As one student tells Sokolove, confronting issues that make people uncomfortable is \u201cone of the big reasons to do theater, right?…\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Sokolove, [once a Harry S. Truman High School student himself] landed in a literature class Volpe taught at the time. \u201cEveryone in life needs to have had at least one brilliant, inspiring teacher,\u201d\u009d<\/b> he states. In Volpe, he found one. Read it all<\/a> (emphasis mine).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The drama program \u201d\u201d at Harry S. Truman High School \u201d\u201d opened this year with one more deficit: its galvanizing teacher, Lou Volpe, retired in June after more than 40 years showing students in an economically slumped, culturally narrow community…<\/span><\/p>\n