A far cry from last semester’s whimsical small-town vignettes in “Almost, Maine,” this spring the Sedona Red Rock High School theater program presents “A Doll’s House,” Henrik Ibsen’s classic 1879 drama about the awakening of a middleclass European housewife.

“All of [the students] and their ability to take direction,” said Phil DePasquale, theater teacher and play director, of his favorite part about directing the play. “They’re very trusting — I can tell them to do something and they’ll at least try it.”

During practices, DePasquale coached the students on diction, body language and timing, encouraging them to get into the minutiae of their performance.

One scene he zeroed in on during practice illustrated the frenetic energy between the characters, most of whom have an ulterior motive or secret they’re keeping. The scene is a dance practice between Torvald Helmer, the man of the house who’s main desire seems to be keeping the status quo, and his wife Nora, who is anxiously trying to protect her family from a secret that could change how Torvald thinks of her and harm his reputation.

As Nora dances and the couple talks, she becomes more worked up, and Torvald mirrors her tension, to the point where they almost begin talking over each other — which the two high school actors repeated over and over until DePasquale felt they hit each beat both clearly and effectively.

Set in the late 1800s, “A Doll’s House” explores the roles of men and women both in the family and in larger society, pitting the students’ perceptions of gender roles against the play’s more traditional portrayals for the time.

“I wanted them to get a sense for how to do a period play, a drawing room drama,” DePasquale said.

From the costumes and set designed by students to careful diction and body language, students worked to embody the feeling of a late-1800s drawing room drama played out on their high school stage.

“A Doll’s House” opens Thursday, April 19, and plays Friday, April 20, and Saturday, April 21, at 7 p.m. each night at the Sedona Performing Arts Center. The final performance will be a matinee Sunday, April 22, at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $10 for students and $12 general admission, and proceeds help pay for future scripts for the theater program.

Rebekah Wahlberg can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 117, or email rwahlberg@larsonnewspapers.com