Parkville High Students Take the Stage Tonight

Later this evening, a crowd will gather in the theatre of Parkville High School, the curtain will draw back and the Parkville High School Knight Players will take the stage for their fall production. 

David & Lisa is based on a case study by psychiatrist Theadore Isaac Rubin in which teenagers try to make a connection in spite of their mental illnesses.  The title teens suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder and adolescent schizophrenia, and struggle to overcome their illnesses by forming a relationship. 

The late Don Leifort, a teacher at the Carver Center in Towson who had produced the play with his students, first suggested David & Lisa to the Parkville High drama program.

"This is sort of a rebuilding year for the [Knight] Players," said Steven Devorah, a Parkville High teacher who directs the play.  "We graduated a lot of talented actors and actresses last year, so we were really attracted to the 22 roles in this play as a way to get more kids involved."

Before the Knight Players decided to put the play on, it was adapted for the screen.

"It was the first real independent movie success outside the Hollywood studios," said Steven Devorah, a Parkville High School teacher who co-directs the play. 

The 1962 film starred Keir Dullea, who would later play Dave in director Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, as David and a young Janet Margolin as Lisa.  That movie was nominated for 2 academy awards.  In 1998, the movie was re-hashed into a "made for TV" movie by Oprah Winfrey's production company and starred Lukas Haas and the late Brittany Murphy.

The show has quite a legacy on screens both big and small, but not so much on the stage, where David & Lisa never made it past community theatre. 

Parkville High student DaNae Baldwin, 17, of Parkville has a good idea as to why. "It's so hard to make this into a play," she said.  "It was meant to be a screenplay, there are about 50 transitions we have to work through."

Arielle Bowyer, 17, performs during those transitions; Arielle plays Simon, a boy with a fixation on chess and music who she describes as "the nerdy of the bunch."  During some of the transitions she plays the viola.

"We've had about two months to learn the play," said Arielle.  "It was originally four, but we decided to put on a spring production"

Now Parkville High School students Daniel Straub and Ashley Smith have a chance to reprise the title roles, supported by a cast of 20 of their classmates. 

The show started tonight, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. with two other performances scheduled this week, on Dec. 15 and 16 at 7 p.m.  Tickets are $5 at the door.

"I think it's vital for the community to come out and support a high school that's trying to revitalize theatre.   I think we have a talented bunch," said Devorah.