One of the most cherished traditions at Falk Laboratory School is the annual spring musical, an experience that dates back to the 1940s and continues to have a significant impact on Falk students today. Since the school’s opening in 1931, dozens of shows have been performed by the student body, the most recent being Falk Middle School’s May 2025 production of “Frozen JR.” 

Bonnie (Baird) Mitchell, an alumna from the Class of 1944, remembers the local newspaper hungrily seeking photos of her class’s performances and publishing stories about “The Nutcracker Suite” and National Book Week plays. Ferne Mosley, Class of 1977, says her days in “Oliver,” “Pirates of Penzance,” and “The Mikado” were “really some of the best times I had.” And Rob Marshall, award-winning film director, producer, and choreographer from the Class of 1974, enjoyed Gilbert and Sullivan operettas at Falk, saying the school’s auditorium is “a wonderful space” with “very special” significance to his family. 

Theater at Falk has been a source of community, confidence, and lasting memories for decades, but its impact on students doesn’t end there. In recent years, the process has also evolved to foster leadership and align with progressive education principles, particularly student agency and the idea that “students should be actively, not passively, engaged in learning” (Progressive Education Tenets, 2025). 

Music teacher Sophie Esswein says the production perfectly mirrors these principles, relying heavily on student contributions and empowering them to make decisions every step of the way. “The only thing adults are doing is reminding everyone backstage to be quiet,” she jokes. “The kids are making it happen.” 

Involved from the Start 

Years ago, Middle School students selected the spring musical from a list of options provided by their teachers, but today, their involvement in the decision process is even deeper. In the fall, students select shows, research them, and create presentations for Stephanie Bohanan’s music class explaining why their show is a good choice for Falk’s theater program. One of the cool things about the project, Esswein explains, is “they have to think about what works for the community and present that as part of their argument and research process. With our program, we can't do a show that has one hundred people in it, but we also probably don't want to do a show that has four featured parts and nothing else.” 

After the students present, the eighth-grade class goes through several rounds of voting to narrow the list of proposed shows down to three. From there, voting opens up to all Middle School students, who are encouraged to follow their personal interests while also considering the strengths and constraints of the school. Esswein says choosing the show this way has led to increased and unexpected participation because students are more likely to get involved when their contributions are reflected in the final decision. 

Students Step Up 

Once a show is chosen, students begin applying to be stage managers. From the start of the rehearsal process to the final performance night, these student leaders play an integral role in the show by creating and managing the props list, assisting with lines and blocking, and leading the backstage, lights, and sound crews. 

Shortly after spring break, the cast is chosen by a volunteer committee of Middle School teachers. Having a teacher-led casting committee is nice, Esswein shares, “because you get a lot of different teachers involved early in the process.” Another unique aspect of Falk casting is that each show has two casts, with different students in each role. Performances alternate between casts to feature as many students as possible and to foster a culture of mutual support and collaboration. 

Additionally, because rehearsals take place during the school day, being a cast member is highly accessible and inclusive, particularly for those who have existing after-school commitments or would be hesitant to devote several hours a week to a musical outside of school. As Cheryl Capezzuti, K–5 art teacher and sets/props designer, puts it, it may be the first and last time some of these students are on stage, but “even if you never participate in musical theater again, it builds an appreciation for what goes into making something bigger than yourself." 

Esswein adds that it’s fun to see students step into starring roles after getting to know them in a classroom environment for many years. Sometimes it’s the people you wouldn't expect to be performers who shine the most, she says, and “you get to see [them] in a different light than in a core academic sense.” 

During rehearsals, which begin in the spring, students often split into groups to conquer different aspects of the show, from music and dialogue to staging and choreography. At the start of the rehearsal process, Esswein and Bohanan direct students, but as everyone becomes more familiar with the show, responsibility is slowly handed over to student choreographers and stage managers. 

Last year’s production, “Frozen JR,” had two to three choreographers per dance and four stage managers. As early as March, they were leading rehearsals and teaching their peers the steps for each scene. “We let [the choreographers] direct the rehearsal with teacher guidance if needed,” Esswein says, “and as that was happening, we [watched] our first scene come together. We had our stage managers in the booth, and they started lighting the scene for the first time, so we were kind of getting a picture of what the show would look like.” 

All Hands on Deck 

In mid-April, one month before opening night, students began spending two hours each morning preparing for the show. In addition to the cast and stage crew, there are several other crews students can be part of. “If they’re in the cast,” Esswein explains, “they continue with rehearsals—and they now have rehearsal every day. If they are not in the cast, every student gets put into a crew, which can be sets and props, construction, publicity, [or] costumes.” 

“The construction crew is basically building the things we need,” Capezzuti says, “like the risers or the blocks. Sets and props makes them look nice and makes anything that needs to be held, and then, of course, there’s costumes." 

In true Falk fashion, these aspects of the show are a deeply collaborative experience, with Tim Wagner from WonderLab leading the construction crew, librarian Benoni Outerbridge taking on costumes, art teachers Cheryl Capezzuti and Deborah Lieberman leading sets and props, and a handful of faculty assisting with behind-the-scenes preparations. 

Capezzuti says she kicks off the design team by creating a long list of sets and props that will be needed for the show—her “hit list.” After that, students have a lot of independence in picking which jobs they want to do. “As you start to incorporate elements of costumes and props and sets [in] the weeks leading up to the show,” Esswein adds, “you take this blank canvas, and then it turns into the musical slowly but surely, which is a really cool process.” 

For Capezzuti, the transformation feels progressive in that it’s an opportunity for students to develop confidence and ownership and construct meaning through making. “We get this book that has the words, the music, the lyrics, the list of things that we want, but the kids—whether they're choreographing a dance or designing a set piece or coming up with a costume—they're deciding how we take words on paper, written by somebody else, and make them their own.” 

A Community Affair 

By the time opening night rolls around each year, the entire school is abuzz with anticipation. “A lot of community excitement and joy comes from it,” Esswein says, referring especially to the Primary (K–2) students who eagerly discuss the show each year and the Class of 2027, who organized a community bake sale for the Alzheimer’s Association during last May's performances. 

Lindsay Zeleznik Smell, an alumna from the Class of 1998, still remembers being one of the younger students waiting not only to witness the magic but to join it. “As elementary students,” she writes, “we had the opportunity to watch the performances each year. The middle schoolers seemed to have so much fun participating in the plays, and many of us aspired to be a part of that when we got older.” 

Although the school has seen many changes in its nearly 100 years of operation, the spring musical remains an essential part of the Falk experience and continues to be a source of lasting memories and friendships for the community. Now more than ever, it’s also an opportunity to grow as leaders and be actively engaged in the learning and creation process. As Esswein puts it, there’s a lot of trust built between students and teachers through the musical, and as Capezzuti says, “being able to work on something way bigger than yourself and seeing how every single person's little contribution makes a difference in the final [product] is something really magical.”