Final Curtain-Steve Bogart to leave Lexington High School

By Laurie Atwater  |  “It’s something that I have been thinking about for awhile,” Steve Bogart says as he sits comfortably in the office outside the celebrated “black box” classroom. Students gather in the other room for an afternoon meeting of the drama club as the anthem “we will rock you,” blasts from a boom box. Bogart gets up and quietly closes the door so we can talk.

Events converged in Bogart’s life this year that compelled him to stop and take stock. His dear friend suddenly received a dire diagnosis, teaching in Lexington hasn’t been as much fun as it used to be and as he approaches sixty, Bogart still has so many things he wants to accomplish.

So, Bogart has made the difficult decision to leave Lexington High School and the theater program he has guided to acclaim over the past 20 plus years. But he doesn’t leave easily.

“The big thing is my friend died last week,” he says quietly. “He retired at 61 and he planned to write a book about theater education and then he got sick.”

It was a wake-up call. “I’m 57 and I’m making a major leap of faith to do this,” he says. “I’m not done artistically at all and I feel that my ideas and my confidence, and my approach are so much clearer now.”

Finding His Passion

It’s an approach that has been developing since the early 80s.  He was a student teacher in art education, when he was asked to design a set for a summer musical theater production. “It was a paying job,” he laughs, “So I did it for the summer and I loved it.” Bogart worked with a friend of his and they both decided that they wanted to come back the next summer to work with the kids.

“But we both thought something was missing from the experience,” he says. “We didn’t want to do any musical; we wanted to write something original with the kids. But we had NO IDEA how to do it,” he says laughing.

Browsing in a bookstore in Harvard Square that winter, Bogart stumbled upon a book by Viola Spolin called, Improvisation for the Theater. “It was filled with all of these exercises that built on each other,” he says. For this art student it was a revelation. “It was all about improvising and creating stories…that’s what we wanted to do.”

Bogart took this method to the theater program the next summer. “It was HUGE” he says. For him it was a revelatory moment. “We ended up writing 10 short pieces with the kids with music.” One of the performances was attended by the head of a private school in Boston who offered Bogart a job teaching drama. “After a few years there, I thought ‘maybe I should go back to school and study theater!’” He lets out a huge laugh. Studying after doing was “really kind of wonderful,” he says. He found his passion at Emerson studying for a Master’s Degree in theater and he has never looked back. From there he began to refine his practice based on what he calls “the authentic voice.”

“I’ve never stopped believing, and it’s gotten even stronger over the years in terms of my teaching, that there is nothing more powerful than the authentic voice of kids. Giving them the chance, and helping them create material that comes from them—that’s why I have created this whole process of creating original material with kids.”

Creating Original Material

The “process” is a powerhouse program that evolves from a dynamic mix of collaboration, trust-building, idea generation and problem-solving. Through the process of crafting theater Bogart has also found a way to engage all the skills needed to create exceptional thinkers and problem solvers.

Jeff Leonard, newly appointed Coordinator of Performing Arts in Lexington, talks about Bogart with unmasked admiration. “I was teaching at LHS when Steve first arrived and several of my students were performing in his first show, Alice. They said it was ‘like nothing they had ever done,’ so I went to see it and I was blown away by the cast and by the art form,” he explains.

Leonard, who will be involved in choosing Bogart’s successor, is truly dedicated to seeing the legacy LHS theater program upheld. “What Steve has created is a process of learning that helps students develop the skills that enable you to create,” he says. Much like the advanced jazz that Leonard teaches at the high school, he feels that Bogart’s approach embodies the philosophy of Fine and Performing Arts at the high school. “He does not compromise when it comes to the art. He pushes the envelope and he has been embraced in Lexington.” Leonard laughs when he recalls Superintendent Phil Geiger’s standing ovation at the opening of Alice. “Phil Geiger came to every performance; there was such support.”

Throughout the years Lexington’s program has developed a reputation for fearlessness—for seeking and embracing the avant-garde. Leonard says that Bogart has a gift for helping students “connect the learning with their own lives—the good, the bad, the funny and the sad. That’s what drama is and that’s what Steve does.”

The Steve Bogart Experience

One of Bogart’s biggest admirers is former student and Dresden Dolls vocalist Amanda Palmer. Last year she returned to Lexington to work with Bogart and LHS students on an original work that they titled The Needle That Sings in Her Heart.

Palmer who is known for her edgy cabaret style, risk-taking performances and intelligent lyrics says she was actually a bit of a loner in high school. We talked by phone a few days ago and it is clear that she remains emotionally connected to Lexington High School and the drama program. To this day she says Steve Bogart’s drama program was one of her biggest creative influences. “Teenagers are extremely self-conscious and really insecure, and they are used to a certain level of judgment from adults,” Palmer says. “Bogart was a miracle because he really listens and he built this platform for expressing what kids have to say—and that’s a sensitive platform to build because lots of what they have to say is really complicated.”

Within all that freedom Palmer explains, was a rigorous process that involved tapping into the creativity of each participant and engaging the entire group in the complicated and disciplined practice of developing a storyline and script. “I think one of the most artistically formative experiences I had as a teenager was creating these plays from scratch—the process of improvisation, how to shape a good idea and throw away a bad idea and how to listen to your collaborators.” She calls it “The Steve Bogart Experience.”

Bogart has evolved this process over the years and always begins with what he calls a “starting point.” The starting pint can be anything—a visual or a piece of music. One year he used the surrealist paintings of Joan Miró. “They [the students] created these wonderful improvisations trying to create movement and texture that did not exist in the natural world, but lived within the rules of the painting. It was so much fun.”

It all seems fun to Bogart and his enthusiasm is infectious. Jeff Leonard says that people think Bogart is serious and dark because the plays often have a serious theme, but “he is so open and up and funny.” Leonard has been his collaborator on musicals over the years. He has directed the pit orchestra on the larger productions and watched the rehearsal process as the production takes shape. “Steve doesn’t care about the perfection of the final project,” Leonard reflects. “He pushes for authenticity. He wants the actors to find their own voice—to create and to grow.”

Taking Ownership

During the development phase of the project, students create characters, themes and ideas on easel pads. The initial brainstorming sessions are free flowing; there is no right or wrong. From there small groups develop scenes, ideas are accepted and rejected and the script takes shape. “Everyone is buying into the process and working together,” Bogart says. He encourages the students to engage their emotions, to get in touch with their feelings and think out of the box. “The stuff that makes art interesting is the moment when a human being takes a risk,” Palmer says.

Bogart expresses such joy when he reflects on this phase of production. “The kids develop a sense of ownership of the material,” he explains. “You see this piece taking shape and you think, ‘we created this!’ I think it gives kids some faith in their own imaginations.”
Boosting that sense of confidence in their own voices is important. “The biggest thing that Steven Bogart did for me at high school was treating me as an artist,” Palmer comments. “He wasn’t patronizing; he didn’t treat me like a kid.”

The Everyday Joys of Teaching

Bogart loves this world he has created in Lexington and his dedication is perhaps most evident when he talks about his classes and the everyday joys of teaching.

“Things happen in class that nobody knows about. Just today,” he says excitedly, “a student who has been kind of detached all semester just exploded. Something shifted this past week and today he was on his feet and jumping and doing everything and leading…these things take time and suddenly you see the light go on. Those little moments are always wonderful…when someone does something that completely changes the air in the room—they went somewhere really difficult and they felt safe doing it in front of everyone.”

As he gets ready to leave Lexington and pursue opportunities elsewhere, Bogart is just where you’d expect him to be—out there on that tightrope, refusing to compromise his creative vision, taking a risk and pushing towards the next great thing. Whether it’s the teaching gig he’s lined up for the fall at Southern New Hampshire University, a possible project with Palmer’s husband, author Neil Gaiman or another collaboration with Palmer herself, you can bet he’ll throw himself in to it with all of the dedication and heart he’s given to Lexington students over the years.

This July he’s headed off to the prestigious Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts where he was accepted into a ten day intensive playwriting program. Then he has a painting exhibition scheduled in Virginia for the fall. For Bogart this is a bittersweet new beginning. He has been bolstered by the great outpouring of support from the community. “It’s hard to leave, but I want to write and create,” he says.

Palmer comments, “I’m sad for the kids who are going to miss out on the experience, but I’m over the moon that he’s going to pursue his art.”

The LHS Drama Program Received many Accolates under Bogart:

Awards were received for original pieces written by students with Bogart:

1991  “Dusted”  won the Bravo National Play competition

1993  “Lot 4b”  state finalist

1996  “Tryptic”  state finalist

1998  “Kindred”  winner  state drama competition

1999 “Blue Lips and Fingertips”  winner state competition

2000 “Myth” winner state competition

2001 “Winter’s Fruit”  alternate winner state competition

2002 028486443″  state finalist

2003 “Accidents of Light” state winner

2004 “The Toilet Operas” state winner

In 2004 Invited to represent Massachusetts in the American High School Theater Festival, Edinburgh Scotland.

Other memorable shows:

• Sir Gawain and The Green Night
• Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Hamlet
• The Tempest
• King Lear
• The Abduction and Transformation of Glowing All White Girl
• White Lies
• Faust
• With the Needle that Sings in Her Heart
• Lily’s Room

Musicals at LHS:

• Drood
• Anything Goes
• Carousel
• The Scarlet Pimpernel
• Nine
• Hair
• West Side Story
• Animal Crackers
• Sweeney Todd
• Les Miserable
• Evita
• Into the Woods
• Rags
• My Favorite Year
• Cabaret
• City of Angels
• The Good Woman of Setzuan
• The Producers
• Seussical
• Assassins