Palm Beach Dramaworks Stages THE HISTORY BOYS, Starting Tonight

Should the primary goal of education be to prepare students to ace their exams - that is, should teachers "teach to the test?" Or should schools be more concerned with imparting a love of learning, of developing students eager to pursue knowledge?

Those questions are being hotly debated all over the country today. And they're also the fundamental questions being posed in Alan Bennett's erudite and entertaining THE HISTORY BOYS, which opens at Palm Beach Dramaworks on December 4 and continues through January 3, with specially priced previews tonight and tomorrow, December 2 and 3.

THE HISTORY BOYS, which won the 2005 Olivier Award for Best New Play and the 2006 Tony Award for Best Play, is set at a boys' school in Northern England in the 1980s, where two schoolmasters have very different views of what their responsibility is to their students. Hector is an unconventional teacher whose mission is to open their minds. As the Headmaster puts it, he is "not curriculum-directed at all." But there's a newcomer who is; a young, cynical teacher named Irwin who trains the students to prepare to face the examiners at Cambridge and Oxford.

Directed by J. Barry Lewis, THE HISTORY BOYS features four actors very familiar to PBD audiences. Colin McPhillamy plays Hector, Rob Donohoe is the Headmaster, Cliff Burgess portrays Irwin, and Angie Radosh plays another teacher, Mrs. Lintott. Their students, all new to PBD, are played by Jelani Alladin,Colin Asercion, Kristian Bikic, Kyle Branzel, Mike Magliocca, Matthew Minor, John Evans Reese, andNathan Stark. Scenic design is by Victor Becker, costume design is by Erin Amico, lighting design is byPaul Black, and sound design is by Tyler Kieffer.

Alan Bennett has had a long and prolific career as a playwright, screenwriter (for film and television), actor, and author. Born in Leeds, England in 1934, he studied history at Oxford University and taught there for several years. But he left academia behind in 1960, when he appeared at the Edinburgh Festival in the revue Beyond the Fringewith Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, and Jonathan Miller. The show, which the four men co-wrote, was an instant hit, and went on to huge success in London and New York. Bennett continued to act and write, and in 1968 his first play, Forty Years On, was produced on the West End and starred John Gielgud. His best-known plays are THE HISTORY BOYS (2004) and The Madness of George III(1991), both of which premiered at the National Theatre and were subsequently made into films, with Bennett writing the screenplays.

Palm Beach Dramaworks is a non-profit, professional theatre and is a member of the Theatre Communications Group, the South Florida Theatre League, Florida Professional Theatres Association, and the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County.

The performance schedule through December 13 is as follows: Evening performances are Wednesday throughSaturday at 8PM, and Sundays at 7PM. Matinee performances are on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sundayat 2PM. Beginning December 15, THE HISTORY BOYS plays a special schedule because of the holidays. Please check the website or call the box office for details.

Individual tickets are $64, with specially priced preview tickets at $44 and Opening Night tickets at $79. Student tickets are available for $10; tickets for educators are half price with proper ID (other restrictions apply). Group rates for 20 or more and discounted season subscriptions are also available. The Don & Ann Brown Theatre is located in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach, at 201 Clematis Street. For ticket information contact the box office at (561) 514-4042, or visit www.palmbeachdramaworks.org.

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