FOR WELTLER, ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE

Ever since she starred as "Ah-CHOO! No. 2" in a first-grade play about the common cold, Lynn Weltler, MEd'83, knew theater was her calling. "I must have believed in method acting," she laughs, "because I was sick as a dog."

As she got older, Weltler thought about pursuing an acting career, but when a teacher told her she'd have to risk everything to get a role as a leading lady, she decided to teach theater instead. She apparently made the right choice. Last April, the Educational Theater Association named her the Massachusetts Drama Teacher of the Year.

"I feel very honored," says Weltler, who teaches theater arts at the Pingree School, a private high school in Hamilton. "It's nice to receive some affirmation of the job that I've been doing. I get a reward just by watching the students and their growth, and this is just a nice addition to that."

Weltler says she uses the stage to train her students to observe and then absorb themselves in different roles. "It's a nice way to explore the inner voices that people have," she says.

Each year she directs two main performances, one of which is usually a musical. She and her students also put on plays for elementary school kids on the North Shore. "My strength is in sharing my love for the theater and in training youngsters in what they need to succeed," says Weltler, who worked as N.U.'s co-op coordinator in criminal justice in the early 1980s.

In addition to her work at the Pingree School, Weltler is also involved with the Pingree Stage, a community theater group she created six years ago which performs at least six musicals each summer. "It's really interesting," she says. "I'm not working solely with young people-I'm also working with people with jobs and families. But the common denominator is that they all love the theater.

"The most satisfying part of it is watching the growth of the kids," she adds. "It's seeing the young boy who might not have said a word at the beginning of the production, but who is able to go out on stage and perform." - Meghan Irons

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