By day he teaches science at The Park School on Old Court Road. But on some nights, Rich Espey puts on his theater hat as an actor and playwright on stages in Baltimore and surrounding areas. Last week, the play, which won the Baltimore Playwrights Festival’s best play award last year, opened at Venus Theater in Laurel. It runs through April 28.
The play opens with the title character in Espey’s “Following Sarah,” training for a race that will end tragically. Espey said he was sparked to write the play when he was a teacher and cross country coach in Atlanta 20 years. During that time, a high school cross country runner at a different school committed suicide after winning a major championship race.
It took me many years to figure out how to write about that. As it turns out, Following Sarah isn’t about that event that took place at the cross-country meet, but the survivors of that event. They have to figure out how to move forward in their lives after this takes place.
Actor: Mattie are you still taking those pills that’s going to screw up your running...
“Following Sarah” is one of dozens of plays that Espey has written over the past 12 years. He is a graduate of the Kennedy Center’s playwriting program and teaches playwriting at Baltimore’s Center Stage. He says his interest in the theater goes back to his performances as a high school student in Baltimore. That interest resurfaced while teaching in New York and Atlanta and increased when he moved back to Baltimore in 1997.
I started doing a lot of acting at places like Fells Point Corner Theatre, Spotlight Theatre, have been involved for the last few years with Single Carrot Theatre and a number of their productions.
Espey is passionate about his playwriting, but he says he’s just as enthusiastic about teaching science.
On a recent day at the Park School, where Espey has taught science for 11 years, his students jumped rope, meditated and stood outside as part of a heart rate experiment.
Just try to make sure that you are really isolating that one specific variable that you want to test.
The students get along well with Espey as they laugh with him and eagerly dive into their experiments. Most students know about Espey’s theater work, but some recently learned of it.
Steven Villacorta: I’m like, Woo, Mr. Espey has a whole different life he’s hiding from us.
Alex Wetzler: In language arts class we read one of his plays.
Parker Brotman: My parents have seen his plays before and they really liked them.
Back at Venus Theatre, before the dress rehearsal for “Following Sarah,” Espey chatted as easily with the director and cast as he does his science students. He says his two careers intersect at times. For instance, a student in “Following Sarah” works on a complicated science project and he uses acting lessons in his science classes.
When we’re studying the immune system, students participate in drama. Some are bacteria, t cells, b cells. We act out what goes on in a cell. Some are mitochondria, the nucleus and all parts of a cell you learned in middle school.
Espey has no plans to give up teaching for the theater or vice versa. He says he enjoys working hard at each.
They both satisfy different parts of my soul. I get a lot of pleasure out of being a playwright and I get a lot of pleasure out of being a teacher too.
A position, many people would love to be in.