This American Life - 23: Drama Bug

Broadcast on: 10 May 1996

Sure, back when the refreshment came and Tiffany and Lara were star struck when they saw the older kids who took the leads in all the high school plays. There was Sean Bear who played Fagan and Oliver. There was Kathy Ferraro who played Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and actually hugged Tiffany who was then just a chorus member during the big scene when she says goodbye to Munchkin Land. There was Robin S. Clark who was just a freshman like them. Robin S. Clark has been late in Cabaret and singing in the rain. And when I first met her and I saw her in Cabaret I was like, "Oh my God, I can't believe she's a freshman. My God, she's so good." And then I had her in a few of my classes and we got to know each other. And I didn't know, I wouldn't say that we're like best friends or anything, but I know her. I had human behavior with her. And like we were in the same group or whatever and it was just like, "Whoa, she's in my group, yeah!" These days Tiffany and Laura came her upperclassmen at Oak Park in River Forest High School just outside Chicago. Now they get the lead roles in the school plays. Now came would never be thrown by one girl who she remembers. And oh wow, she was just the lead in 42nd Street and anything goes. Yeah, I really got star stuck with her too. And I thought she was so cool and then the times that I'd meet her she would just totally blow me off like I wasn't even important. And that just really hurt. I mean that just really knocked me down. But you know, Oak Park in River Forest is a big school. And in reality, most students do not get knocked down if the lead from 42nd Street ices them. Most students at Oak Park couldn't care less. Drama is uncool. Drama is to be ignored. But at Oak Park, as in high schools, all across Chicago and all across, are great Midwest. Hundreds of miles within the sound of my voice right now, as I speak to you from Chicago. In every high school there is a small cadre of students and they're in all the players. They can discuss it length, which show was Melky Boyle's best one. They're the ones who noticed the newspaper clipping taped up in the nurse's office about Robyn S. Clark, who's now in college. But it's like, it's like Robyn S. Clark, the new funny girl. And I was just like, oh, I know her, I know her.

Welcome WB EZ Chicago, it is This American Life. I'm Ira Glass. Back for another week, documenting everyday stories of these United States. Today's show is about the drama bug. People who get it. Act one, David Sedaris tells his mom that he wants to be an actor. Act two, a month of rehearsals for a real high school play outside Chicago. Act three, dying for Shakespeare. Stay with us. Act one. David Sedaris is the author of Barrel Fever and of many plays, including most recently One Woman Shoe in New York City. These plays get critical acclaim in the New York Times and elsewhere. He is a morning edition commentator and it was this story of his that he's about to read for us. This story about getting the drama bug that gave us the idea to do an entire program on the drama bug. We're going to divide up this story into two parts. Here's the first. The man was sent to our school in order to inspire us and personally speaking, I thought he did an excellent job. After introducing himself in a relaxed and casual manner, he started towards the back of the room, only to be stopped midway by what we came to know as the invisible wall. That transparent barrier realized only by mimes, drug addicts and certain varieties of rapid cycling psychotics. I sat enthralled as he rited himself and began investigating the imaginary wall with his open palms, running his hands over the hard smooth surface and hopes of finding a way out. Moments later he was tugging in an invisible rope, then struggling in the face of a violent, fantastic wind.

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