Event

The Faculty Lounge - Oil Lamp Theater, 1723 Glenview Road, Glenview, IL 60025

Why did you become a high school teacher? This question, posed by a journalism class to the faculty of a typical American high school, sets the scene for The Faculty Lounge, a hilarious and touching play by Kentucky playwright Teri Foltz. Foltz, herself a former secondary school teacher, takes audiences into the private inner sanctum of a high school faculty lounge where teachers relax, vent their frustrations and share their hopes, both for themselves and for their students. In a series of short scenes, five high school teachers share thoughts they would never utter in a classroom or a parent-teacher conference as they reflect on their reasons for becoming teachers. Five students also weave in and out of their stories, sometimes leaping in as memories from the past, as the teachers own experiences as high school students intersect with their present-day realities. As playwright Foltz once said about her former profession, I am very serious about teaching, although I found many aspects of my career hilarious! She also notes,The best part of teaching for me was always the students. My head is crowded with faces and voices of young people who made me laugh, cry and think. The Faculty Lounge gives us all a chance to experience the profound human connections that make up the life of a teacher -- from silly to moving, from embarrassing to inspiring -- and that can never be measured on a report card or a standardized test.

The performance runs 2 hours 15 minutes including intermission.