“Life’s a Stage” A Gwen Lehman Story a Success at Palace Theatre

On Friday, March 2, “Life’s A Stage” premiered at the local Frostburg Palace Theatre. With a red carpet entrance, students, faculty, and visitors filed in to see the successful documentary.

“Life’s A Stage” put the spotlight on retired theatre teacher, Gwen Lehman. Frostburg State University Assistant Professor and Director of the film, Annie Danzi, had Lehman as a student at Stephen Decatur High School. Throughout the documentary Danzi nailed the connection she and so many other students had with Lehman, and made the viewers feel that same connection.

Lehman started the Stephen Decatur High School theatre program from the ground up. She was initially asked to help with the junior and senior class plays to raise money for prom and graduation. From there, Lehman felt like she could do more and agreed to write a curriculum to bring the first drama class to Stephen Decatur High School. As years passed, the program became very successful.

A pinnacle of Lehman’s professional achievement was the creation of the Decatur Children’s Theatre. For a week out of the year, Lehman’s class puts on about 18 shows for young children from local schools throughout the area. Lehman said at one point 10,000 students had seen their show in one week. Young kids who see the show as an audience member would come back years later to help Lehman create the same magic they saw on stage.

In 2015, Lehman announced her retirement. The announcement left people wondering what would happen to Lehman’s legacy at Stephen Decatur High School. According to Lehman, a former student would always joke about when she retired, he was going to take her job. Sure enough, that student, Brandon Cater, took over Lehman’s job in 2015. In the film, Cater says that he has been told “he has big shoes to fill,” but he is okay with that.

Lehman told the audience during the question and answer period that she still feels connected to the program even though she isn’t running it. Cater still leans on Lehman to write scripts whenever she can, and she goes to the productions to see her scripts in action.

Audience members asked questions in awe of the experience for around 45 minutes after the film. Danzi was asked to describe Lehman and the experience in one word. Her response was “mentor and an honor.” Danzi stated that she hopes to be like Lehman in all aspects and to have that profound impact on students the way Lehman did on her.

Lehman’s former students have created a foundation in her name, The Friends of Gwen Freeman Lehman Foundation. This foundation gives a scholarship away each year for a student graduating from Stephen Decatur High School who wishes to pursue theatre at college. If interested in donating or to learn more about the scholarship click here.

At the end of the film, Danzi highlights the point of Lehman enjoying her retirement as she planned, and Lehman let the audience know that even though she is retired she is still a part of the Stephen Decatur High School theatre department.

After a successful premiere, the film will be shown at the Ocean City Film Festival on March 9 at 7 p.m.