With cast of 'History Boys,' a lesson in good chemistry

The actors playing British students in "The History Boys" are (front, from left) Karl Baker Olson, Jonathan Popp, Mohit Gourisaria; and (back, from left) Sheldon Best, Samson Kohanski, Joe Lanza, Dan Whelton, and Jared Craig. (mike lovett)

At a recent rehearsal for SpeakEasy Stage Company's production of "The History Boys," the eight actors playing British high school students joke and tease one another with a comfortable familiarity. It's hard to believe they've only been working together a few weeks, chosen from a pool of 125 actors who auditioned.

"I really searched for the right combination of actors," says director Scott Edmiston of the play, which starts previews tonight at the Boston Center for the Arts' Roberts Studio Theatre. "Then I needed them to come together as an ensemble and learn to rely on each other very quickly. We spent the first week of rehearsals just talking about the play and doing improvisations so they could get comfortable with each other."

"It hasn't been that difficult to connect," says Mohit Gourisaria. "We're all around the same age [21 to 27], we all like talking about sex, we laugh at the same jokes, we go out drinking together."

But when the conversation turns to the issues in the play, the actors are thoughtful, serious, and even awed by the young men they portray.

"These guys are so darn clever," says Dan Whelton, "They're smarter and wittier than most guys their age, or any age, for that matter."

Alan Bennett's Tony Award-winning drama explores the power of education to open eager young minds to life's possibilities, and also the deadening effects of "teaching to the test." The students are intellectually challenged by a beloved teacher named Hector (Bob Colonna), but the school's ambitious headmaster also brings in a younger instructor named Irwin (Chris Thorn) who teaches them tricks to earn high scores on the exams that will earn them spots at prestigious Oxford and Cambridge universities.

"They're being groomed like rock stars," says actor Jonathan Popp. "In American high schools, it would be the athletes who would be looked up to, but in this school it's the experts in history and poetry."

"These kids are the underdogs," adds actor Samson Kohanski. "They live far outside London, and you want to root for them to win."

"But," says actor Joe Lanza, "Getting in is the rush. Once they get there, they become ordinary."

Although comparisons have been made to other nostalgic teacher-student stories such as "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," "Mr. Holland's Opus," and "Dead Poets Society," "The History Boys," says Edmiston, "has a kind of moral complexity and ambiguity those other stories don't have. I think Alan Bennett takes us to unexpected places. Acceptable parameters of a student/teacher relationship become blurred, and love and teaching get all mixed up. At one point, the teacher Hector even says, 'The transmission of knowledge is an erotic act.' "

The teachers' actions, including Hector's inappropriate groping, have an impact on the students. The play takes place at a critical time in their lives, notes actor Jared Craig. "In retrospect, they realize these events made them who they are. And the people who orchestrate the events are teachers. The fact that their relationship with their teacher goes beyond what's acceptable is about respect they have for him, and the hypnotic power he has over them."

All of the actors agree that the sexual aspect is just one piece of Bennett's story, though. "He's also talking about how and what these boys are taught," says Sheldon Best. "Who's history is it, really?"

Through June 7. Tickets: $49-$54. 617-933-8600, bostontheatrescene.com.

Marathon Sunday

Theresa Rebeck, Robert Brustein, Israel Horovitz, and Ronan Noone are among the playwrights featured in the 10th annual Boston Theater Marathon, which starts at noon on May 11 in the Boston Center for the Arts' Calderwood Pavilion. Fifty 10-minute plays, with subjects ranging from the war in Iraq to Kenneth Lay's last hours, are among this year's selections, according to Jake Strautmann of the Boston Playwrights' Theatre, which sponsors the 10-hour event. Tickets: $25 in advance, $30 at the door. All proceeds benefit the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund. 617-933-8600, bostontheatrescene.com

Notes

The 26th annual Elliot Norton Awards will be held May 12 at 7 p.m. at Sanders Theatre. Award-winning actress Andrea Martin will be the guest of honor and will introduce outgoing Huntington Theatre Company artistic director Nicholas Martin, who will receive the Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence. Nineteen other awards will also be given, and Stagesource will present its annual Theater Hero Award at the event, which this year goes to SpeakEasy Stage Company for its "dedication to nurturing and supporting Boston area theater artists and for its leadership and inspiration" among the local theater community. Tickets: $10.617-496-2222, fas.harvard.edu/tickets. . . . Dancer/educators Jacques D'Amboise and Anthony Williams will be honored with Wheelock Family Theatre's annual Wheel Award May 17 at 6 p.m. at the home of Wheelock College president Jackie Jenkins-Scott, 295 Kent St., Brookline. The award, presented to D'Amboise, founder of the National Dance Institute, and Williams, founder of BalletRox and creator of "Urban Nutcracker," recognizes "individuals who share the Theatre'scommitment to children and families and whose work embodies the Theatre's belief that the arts can transform lives." The event, at which food is served, also features musical selections performed by Katherine Leigh Doherty, Andrea Ross, and Bob Saoud, among others.Tickets: $100 (proceeds benefit WFT programming). 617-879-2252, wheelock.edu/wft.