Get ready to Rise on Tuesday, March 13th for the series premiere at 10 p.m. on NBC.

By Hannah Brown

Local Truman High School’s very own drama teacher and famed theatre department are going to be hitting your television screen this March. A new series on NBC called Rise is based on a novel by Michael Sokolove, Drama High: The Incredible True Story of a Brilliant Teacher, a Struggling Town, and the Magic of Theater, which brings this school’s story to a reality in a series that can compared to Glee meets Friday Night Lights.

Executive producer and show-runner of Friday Night Lights, Jason Katims, created this series about a motivated and inspiring, 44-year teacher Lou Volpe, played by Josh Radnor (of How I Met Your Mother) in the series. Radnor takes charge of the local school’s theatre department and electrifies the students all around. Volpe believes in these students in a way that no one has believed in them before. He brings out the excitement and passion in a working-class town, and showcases all of the hard work enthusiasm that is normally not pushed to the forefront of a community.

Photo Credit: NBC

The show brings to attention various real issues that students in schools are facing today including identity, sexuality, healthcare, and addiction, all while sharing the talent in and importance of a theatre program which may not be recognized at first. Rise takes place in the town of “Stanton, Pennsylvania,” but is based on the Bristol area.

Actors in Rise include Josh Radnor, Rosie Perez, Auli'i Cravalho, Damon J. Gillespie, Marley Shelton, Rarmian Newton, Ted Sutherland, Amy Forsyth, Casey Johnson, Taylor Richardson, Joe Tippett, and Shirley Rumierk.

Contributors also include Broadway’s Hamilton producer, Jeffrey Seller.

The series is produced by Universal Television, True Jack Productions and Seller Suarez Productions.

Season 1 of Rise will consist of 10 episodes.

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