Teacher puts experience to the test in new show

Composer David Reiser taught high school for 34 years, from 1960 to 1994. Now he has written a show about his experiences, called "The Second Oldest Profession," a musical receiving its first staged production Friday through Aug. 22 at Cutting Hall in Palatine.

"I taught at District 211 at Palatine High School," Reiser says. "I taught choral music. I assisted in drama. I was the department chair for a while at Palatine High School."

The show Reiser wrote, with another retired teacher, David Alex, draws on those experiences.

"The show is about teachers being laid off because of incomplete funding from legislatures," Reiser says. "It all takes place in the late spring in the faculty lounge. At the end of the day, the staff is to receive letters that will inform them which teachers will be laid off."

Reiser started composing for musicals when he was a young man in the early 1970s. "I had always wanted to write a musical," he says. "And finally I got an idea for one based on the legend of Robin Hood. I had a bunch of really good students. We decided to put it on and we sandwiched it between our regular shows. We were quite a success."

From that point on, Reiser divided his time between teaching and composing. He wrote 18 musicals with local playwright Jack Sharkey.

Reiser has been working on "The Second Oldest Profession" since the late 1980s when he first got the idea. He brought playwright David Alex in to work with him about a decade later.

"The Second Oldest Profession" received a staged reading in 2006, but this weekend marks the first full production.

The show was cast in May, but rehearsals didn't begin until early July because Reiser was in London for a production of one of his other works.

How have rehearsals gone? "David Alex has done a lot of rewriting on the script," Reiser said. "We've got a tighter script now than we did before rehearsals started."

• "The Second Oldest Profession" runs through Aug. 22 at Cutting Hall, 150 E. Wood St., Palatine. For tickets call (847) 202-5222 or go to www.palatineparkdistrict.com/boxoffice.html.