After 41 years of directing plays and musicals at University Prep, Paul Fleming closed his last show on April 28. It was a series of five one-act plays, ranging from serious dramas to comedy skits. While the class only had four people in it this year, when Fleming got to UPrep, there wasn’t a play production class at all, nor a theater to perform in or a stagecraft crew to build sets. However, within his first year, he realized how much student interest there was in the program. 

“I announced it at an assembly and asked for anybody interested in being a play to come stand around me after,” Fleming said. “And 60 people stood around me – 60 of 120 kids.”

Since that moment, Fleming has contributed to the development of the theater department at UPrep, and Fleming has loved contributing to and watching the progression happen. He remembers when he started doing middle school play production, and they would perform in a portable during lunch on a student-built stage.

“The kids would get their lunch and then come into ‘Lunchtime Theater.’ There would be about 40 people in there, and they would sit around, and then we would do a play,” Fleming said.

Because UPrep still didn’t have a stage, Fleming and his students worked together to build a small stage and backdrop in the portable. However, after 20 years of performing in makeshift stages and theaters around Seattle, UPrep finally got its own stage.

“We had Founder’s Hall built, and it was kind of like the most amazing dream come true for me,” Fleming said.

And while the play wasn’t in Founder’s this year, the dance room, or Blackbox Theater, worked just as well for the play. This year’s play was a combination of five one-act plays that Fleming chose to fit the small cast perfectly. 

“There’s three serious plays and two comedies. It’s so each actor can stretch themself,” Fleming said. “In the comedies, all the actors get very strong moments too.”

He really likes giving each actor a strong moment so that they are able to step out of their comfort zone.

Ninth grader Huda Hassan really enjoyed the challenge that came with being in the play. 

“This is my first time doing anything like this – like I’ve never been in a play before,” Hassan said.

“It was a struggle at first to remember my lines and especially when we had to go off-book. But eventually, I just did it so many times that I was able to get through that.”

Students overcoming challenges has been one of the most rewarding experiences of Fleming’s time at UPrep.

“Every time I’ve done a play,”  Fleming said. “It is a good feeling to get to know that some people are being challenged in a way that they have never been challenged in before.”