Showrunner Says He Wanted ‘Material That Was Provocative,’ ‘Didn’t Want to Shy Away From Sexual Orientation and Gender,’ but Wanted to ‘Make It My Own’
NBC is promoting its new drama about a high school teacher and his students as an “inspiring high school drama inspired by a true story” but for some reason has decided to change the main character from gay to straight.
“Rise,” HuffPost notes, “follows Lou Mazzuchelli (played by Josh Radnor) as he helps revitalize the high school theater department in a working-class town. The series is based on Michael Sokolove’s 2014 book, Drama High: The Incredible True Story of a Brilliant Teacher, a Struggling Town, and the Magic of Theater.”
Mazzuchelli, in turn, is loosely based on Lou Volpe, who was the drama director at Harry S. Truman High School in Levittown, Pennsylvania, before retiring in 2013. There has been one critical change: Although Volpe came out as gay late in his career, Mazzuchelli will be portrayed on “Rise†as a straight family man.
“I wanted it to be two things: material that was provocative,” showrunner Jason Katims tells The Hollywood Reporter, “and I also wanted it to be a show that thematically connected to the stories that these characters were going through.”
Why change the teacher from gay to straight?
“I felt like I needed to make it my own story. I didn’t want to shy away from sexual orientation and gender,” Katims says. THR reports he “referenced a transgender high school student and another who is coming to grips with his own sexuality amid being raised by a very religious family.”
“Those stories resonated with me as a storyteller and I wanted to lean into that. With Lou’s family, there’s a lot of reimagination — not just if he’s gay or straight, but the family structure. … It was important to honor the source material, but to also make it my own so we’d be able to lean into it.”
Katims is taking heat on social media:
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