SCH Theater Kicks Off 2025–26 Season with The Phantom Tollbooth and a Community Book Drive

The Springside Chestnut Hill Academy Theater Program proudly launches its 2025–26 season with The Phantom Tollbooth, a wildly imaginative adventure based on Norton Juster’s beloved classic. Audiences will follow Milo, a bored boy whose curiosity propels him through a mysterious tollbooth into the whimsical Kingdom of Wisdom—where he learns that imagination, knowledge, and the courage to ask questions can transform the world.

The production will take the stage for four performances—from Thursday, November 20, through Saturday, November 22—including three evening shows and a special Saturday matinee. Audiences can look forward to an imaginative, high-energy performance that showcases the talents of SCH’s high school drama program, Players, including four different styles of puppets of varying sizes that have been constructed by the tech crew.

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At SCH, theater is more than performance—it’s a platform for students to discover their voices, explore ideas, and use the power of storytelling to create change. This season, SCH theater introduces Stages & Stories: Performing Arts Gives Back, a new initiative that comes to life through a special partnership with booked., a cherished Chestnut Hill bookstore, which will support Horizons at SCH. In its fifth year, the Horizons at SCH program provides free literacy, math, STEM, and enrichment opportunities to more than 75 local students each year. And now, from November 13 through May 15, every book purchased from the Stages & Stories reading list at booked. will go directly into a Horizons classroom, aligning with their classroom curriculum.

The owner of booked., Debbie Gress Jansen ’87 is a Springside alumna, CHA Honorary Alumna ’16, SCH parent P’18, ’20, and longtime SCH educator. She jumped at the opportunity to support Stages & Stories, saying, “It is a perfect example of how the power of a story can bring a community together to inspire change. I’m deeply grateful to see my two greatest passions—books and theater—intertwine so beautifully.”

Through productions like The Phantom Tollbooth and initiatives like Stages & Stories, SCH Theater continues to demonstrate how performance can spark imagination, build community, and inspire meaningful change.