RL Presents the Junior Play, “Chalk is Cheap”—A Production by RL, about RL!

On May 6 and 7, this year’s Junior Play—a production two years in the making—filled the Smith Theater stage at 7:30 p.m. both evenings. Chalk Is Cheap, an original play written by Associate Headmaster Mike Pojman, was intended to be produced in 2020, as part of the school’s 375th anniversary celebration. As with so many other plans, the production had to be put on hold.

Playwright Mr. Pojman writes in the program notes, “I am thrilled and grateful that my friend Derek Nelson took a leap of faith and offered to produce it now, with a little freshening up, to celebrate the school’s 475th—albeit a century early. Without his blind faith, imagination, foresight, and expert direction, Chalk is Cheap would have remained in COVID quarantine permanently.

“I also want to extend my thanks to Brian Buckley, Cass Martyn-Seidl, David Sullivan ’22, Joy Adams, James Allan, Michael Beam, and the many student actors, set builders, and techies who made this production possible. I felt some urgency about writing Chalk is Cheap because, being rather fond of the title, I thought it important that the work be staged before a reference to ‘chalk’ was as unfamiliar to a teenage audience as a rotary phone. It may already be too late—my Fifthie English students have been asking me, ‘We know it’s a pun, but what does it mean?’

“As you will see, my esteemed colleagues Elizabeth Carroll and Jamie Morris-Kliment are fully on board with their loving portrayals in this production, as are my friends Brian Buckley, Jim Ryan, Billy Quirk, George Matthews, Nick Poles, Darian Reid, and Paul Sugg. (Or, they would have been had I consulted them.)

“Finally, let me apologize ahead of time for any inside jokes that may leave you grown-ups baffled. And regarding those that simply fall flat, I would also ask you to allow the equally mystified actors to step over them and move on.”