The Secret School

This play was adapted from the novel by Newbery medalist Avi.

A new teacher, the enigmatic “Mrs. I,” quickly sets a class of unruly
students in order, claiming she began her teaching career as a
14-year-old, teaching secretly in a one-room schoolhouse. When Mrs. I
leaves the students alone, they find clues that suggest their teacher
has been telling them the truth. The class enacts the story of the
“secret school” to see if their teacher could have actually taught at
such a young age, replacing the adult teacher who abandoned her class.
In the “play within a play,” young Ida Bidson teaches her seven pupils
so they can advance and she can go on to high school. The play offers
an intriguing story of a headstrong girl determined to control her own
destiny, and of a group of students from another generation learning to accept responsibility for their own education,

The script can be performed with a gender-flexible ensemble of 8 to 17 players. It runs a little over ninety minutes including intermission. The Secret School premiered with a mid-sized cast at Highland High School in Salt Lake City, Utah. It had a second production with a small cast with the Open Eye Theater in Margaretville, New York and a third production with Dreamwrights Youth and Family Theatre in York, Pennsylvania. It has subsequently been performed by school groups across the country.

The script cover shows fourteen-year-old Ida Bidson tutoring her younger peers.

The script is now published by Dramatic Publishing. You can read excerpts from the script and find out about scripts purchases and royalties at their website at www.dramaticpublishing.com or go directly to their page on The Secret School by hitting the following link: http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/p1828/The-Secret-School/product_info.html

Newman Plays