A show to remember

Deirdre Newman

NEWPORT BEACH -- Like any large high school, Newport Harbor High has

its share of divisions among its students -- financial divisions, ethnic

divisions, academic divisions.

For the fall play, drama director Gail Brower-Nedler wanted a show

that would bridge the chasm between various factions by exposing the raw

feelings universally shared by people, no matter what group they happen

to be in.

She chose “The Boys Next Door”, a poignant rendering of four mentally

disabled men in a group home who have to deal with the possibility of

their social worker abandoning them.

The show earned rave reviews and is providing the actors with an

opportunity to perform for state legislators later this month.

The contemporary drama, which was made into a 1996 television movie

starring Nathan Lane and Robert Sean Leonard, had a profound affect on

the school by increasing the level of awareness and tolerance among

student, said the main cast members.

“This show touched everyone here,” said senior Jason Kraft, 17, who

plays one of the mentally disabled men. “There were some people on campus

that hated me. Now I talk to them.”

The cast started rehearsing in late September and quickly bonded into

a family -- so much so, that they still have a close connection and a

tendency to finish each others’ sentences. Their rehearsal schedule was

intense since they had to be ready for school performances in October.

In order to inhabit a world they had little experience in, they

enlisted the help of Corrie Rausch, who used to work at the Fairview

Adult Developmental Center and now works in the school’s special

education department.

“We did exercises so we would know what it felt like to be

discriminated against,” said junior Ryan Bean, 17, who plays a

manic-depressive.

Ryan said that he and the other actors and actresses invested so much

emotion in the characters that it was often hard to snap out of

character.

“We’d be in character from half an hour before the show until an hour

afterwords. We’d walk and talk like our characters,” Ryan said.

Even though the show ended its school run in October, the cast is

still receiving complimentary reviews.

“At the winter formal dance, I went to eat somewhere and a woman told

me that this was the most amazing show she had ever seen, not just for a

high school play, but anywhere,” said sophomore Mike McLean, 15, who

plays the social worker, Jack.

And at the annual California Educational Theater Association

competition in Monrovia earlier this year, the cast also made an

indelible impression on the judges and the community with only a

10-minute scene.

“We’re famous in Monrovia,” said junior Jennifer Kramer, 16, who plays

the romantic interest of one of the mentally handicapped men. “People

would honk at us and shout ‘There’s “The Boys Next Door”.’ ”

The cast won a slew of awards, including Best Ensemble, and scored

five scholarships to attend California Youth in Theater Day in Sacramento

later this month.

The privilege enables them to perform their 10-minute version of the

show in front of state legislators and then meet with the politicians

privately to convince them to increase funding for the arts.

Brower-Nedler has even loftier ambitions for the show. She wold like

to see it performed at a theater festival in Edinburgh, Scotland

hopefully next summer.

As the cast prepares to perform once again, they know they have

achieved something so inimitable that they are already looking back on it

with nostalgia.”Everyone is so proud of this show,” said Jason. “I think

for all of us it’s the most amazing experience we’ve ever had or ever

will have.”