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    ISBN: 9780889225718 | Paperback

    96 pages | Pub. Date: 20071001
    6.00 W × 9.00 H × 0.30000000000000004 D inches
    Backlist | Drama | Bisac: DRA013000
    Rights: WORLD

    Or find Schoolhouse in your local bookstore

The time: 1938. The place: S.S. #1 Jericho School, a one-room schoolhouse in a farming area just outside the fictional village of Baker’s Creek. There, a delightful but unmanageable group of children finally meets its match—Melita Linton, an 18-year-old teacher fresh out of Normal School. But Miss Linton soon faces her own challenge, in the form of Ewart, a menacing and mysterious juvenile delinquent sent to “straighten out” on a farm after doing time in Battenville Training School. The play chronicles Miss Linton’s struggle to connect with a boy who has cut himself off from everyone, including himself—and to persuade the cautious and close-knit community to open its arms to this stranger in their midst.

Full of warmth and poignant humour, Schoolhouse evokes a way of life shared by generations of rural North Americans, exploring timeless themes of rejection, of compassion, of damage, of hope. It is a story about insiders and outsiders, and the fact that every time you draw a circle, some things are inside the circle and some things are not. In the end, the play is about those on the outside—about people who often “don’t have the words” to express themselves or the training to cope with their lives but who have to get through anyway—those we leave behind to their own devices, who set themselves free.

Cast of 5 women and 7 men.

“A thoughtful … well crafted … beautifully inspired piece. Like Blyth Festival, Schoolhouse is a Canadian story. It is an excellent choice to mark the theatre’s 100th milestone, compelling and richly rural.”
Ottawa Citizen

By Leanna Brodie

Leanna Brodie is a playwright, translator, and actor whose work has been performed across Canada, the USA, the UK, and New Zealand. She is also a leading translator of a new generation of Québécois playwrights, with productions scheduled for the 2019–2020 season in Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Toronto, Montréal, and Chicago.

Read more about Leanna Brodie


news | 2012-07-12
Schooling in the Old Days

…an inspiring play that celebrates the one-room schoolhouse era and the teachers who worked so hard to help … their students succeed. Schoolhouse, by Leanna Brodie, is a play that everyone who … attended one of the old schools will appreciate. Schoolhouse premieres on July 26 with performances through …


news | 2011-06-20
Festival Players Open Up The Book of Esther

…story, from the writer who brought us Schoolhouse, takes us on a young girl’s journey to find …


news | 2010-08-18
The Book of Esther

…at the Blyth Festival. Her critically acclaimed Schoolhouse premiered as a sold-out hit in 2006. The Book of …