From showrunner Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights, Parenthood) and Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller, the NBC drama series Rise follows Lou Mazzuchelli (Josh Radnor), a dedicated teacher who sets out on a mission to take over the school’s lackluster theater department and turn it into what he believes it can be, even if no one else sees it. And as he casts the roles in the high school production of Spring Awakening that he’s directing, not only does it revitalize his passion for teaching, but it gives the students a new outlook on their own lives, families and relationships. The series also stars Rosie Perez, Marley Shelton, Auli’i Cravalho, Damon J. Gillespie, Amy Forsyth, Ted Sutherland, Casey W. Johnson, Rarmian Newton, Joe Tippett, and Shirley Rumierk.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, executive producer/writer Jason Katims talked about what he’s most excited about getting to do with Rise, the similarities the show shares with his previous shows, Friday Night Lights and Parenthood, why Spring Awakening was the right musical for them to tackle in Season 1, trying to decide what musical they could explore next, in a possible Season 2, how this has been a real learning experience for the younger cast, and what’s most impressed him about watching what the actors have done with this material.

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Collider:  What inspired this show and what were you most excited about getting to do with it?

JASON KATIMS:  There were a few things that I was very excited about, with this show. I did feel like it shares something with Friday Night Lights and Parenthood, which is this large ensemble. That was an element of Friday Night Lights and Parenthood that I really loved. When I heard the idea for this show, because it was inspired by the book Drama High and the real Lou, I could see that this could be one of those shows. I was very excited by the idea, on one hand, having the engine be about this troupe and this theater program, but I was also excited about all of the stories, outside of that, with all of the family stories and all of the interconnections between them. The waitress at the diner is having an affair with the football coach, and she’s the mother of the person who gets cast as the lead [in the musical]. There’s so many great ways that all of these people are tied together. I thought it could be a very rich show, and I found it to be a very moving experience to tell these stories. I got very emotionally involved in it, both with the storytelling and in the editing room, and I’m hoping people have that same feeling, where they feel like they’re not watching it from a distance, but they really feel connected to these characters.

Why was Spring Awakening the right musical to tackle?

KATIMS:  Well, it was a show that the real Lou did, as the first high school production of Spring Awakening. I also thought it was important that the show was going to be somewhat provocative. There was this theater program that had been there for years, that had been looked over and was not really being taken seriously, and I was excited about the idea that he had decided to do something that would wake people up and force people to think. I thought that was really intriguing. And then, I wanted something that I felt was going to resonate, and the characters in Spring Awakening would resonate with our characters. Because Spring Awakening is about these teenagers going through a very difficult period in their lives, I thought it would lend itself to having all of these thematic connections with our characters.

Will we see the production throughout the run of the entire season?

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KATIMS:  Yes, Spring Awakening is the show for the first season of Rise. They choose the show and the show gets cast, and then, over the course of the season, you see the rehearsals, the band comes in, and you see the sets and the wardrobe. And then, of course, there are all of the challenges. He’s chosen a show that’s very provocative, so it creates a conflict between him and the administration, the district and other parents. You’ll watch all of that being carried through, so that, by the end of the season, we’ll get to what will hopefully be opening night, meaning that hopefully the show goes on and does not get shut down.

Have you thought about other shows you’d like to explore, in future seasons?

KATIMS:  Yeah. We’ve finished shooting Season 1, so I’m starting to think about what we could do, if we get a Season 2. I always like to begin with our characters first and what they’re going through, and then, as that starts to become more clear, I think about what show would be something that would resonate with what they’re going through.

Has your cast started pitching you productions they’d like to do?

KATIMS:  That did start, toward the end. Everyone was consumed by Spring Awakening. This young cast wasn’t just doing the scenes. They had to learn songs, rehearse the songs, record the songs and learn the choreography, and then shoot it. They were very, very busy. But right with the final episode, people started coming up to me and everybody was pitching their ideas. I have a list. I dutifully wrote them all down.

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Was there one that was suggested to you, most often?

KATIMS:  The one I heard most often was Into the Woods. That’s one that I heard, a lot. There are so many factors that go into it. It’s about what the story is that’s thematically connected, whether there are the right characters in the show to play those characters, and whether I like it and want to spend that much time on it. When you choose to do a show, you have to think, “Okay, I’m gonna write a pilot now, but this has to be something that I want to be with for five years,” because that could happen. It’s the same thing, when we’re choosing [a musical]. If it’s something we’re going to stay with for a better part of the season or the entire season, it’s got to be exciting for me to dig into.

We know how talented Auli’i Cravalho is, as a singer, because we heard her signing in Moana, but people aren’t as familiar with her, as an actress. What made you believe that she could pull that side of it off, as well?

KATIMS:  She’s just done such an amazing job. She was actually one of the first or maybe the first person that we cast, or at least one of the first people we auditioned. One of the first things the casting directors did was have her go on tape for it in Hawaii, and I got to see her both act and sing. She had this incredible singing voice and an incredible raw talent, as an actress. We cast her, right away, based on that. Even from the very beginning, on this show, she had great instincts and was so good, but to see her come so far, as an actress, over a few months, was really amazing. I feel that way about a lot of them. Damon [J. Gillespie] had acted in theater and on Broadway, but hadn’t done film or television. This was a real learning experience. It’s a different kind of storytelling and a different kind of acting, so it was really exciting to watch them all grow, in their skills and in their confidence level, over the course of the season.

Was it an intentional decision to surround your relatively new young cast with veterans?

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KATIMS:  Oh, absolutely! It makes a lot of sense and was not dissimilar from Friday Night Lights. With Friday Night Lights, Taylor Kitsch had never acted before, and a lot of them hadn’t or they’d only done a couple of things. And then, you had Kyle [Chandler] and Connie [Britton]. With Rise, as great as Josh [Radnor] and Rosie [Perez] and Marley [Shelton] are, as role models, they never laid that on thick. They just considered the younger cast members as a part of their troupe, but they do lead by example. Their work ethic, with all of them, is so strong. One of the things I love about all of them is that they’re so passionate about the show. When you think about Rosie or Josh, they could have done a lot of different shows, but this is something they chose because they wanted to tell this story, and that really comes through and filters and resonates throughout the production.

What has most impressed you, in watching this cast?

KATIMS:  You like to think that there’s a sure-fire formula to making a show, but you never quite know. You just follow your instincts and you go with what you believe and what your gut tells you, in terms of casting people and in terms of the stories you tell. As a showrunner, my goal is that, when I see an episode on screen, it exceeds what I thought it could be and it exceeds what I imagined it to be when I wrote it. It’s not me telling the actors the exact way to say things. It’s about putting people in a position where the sum is greater than its parts. That’s basically been true of this show, with this young cast and with the veterans. They’re digging deep and they’re finding these connections with each other, in acting these scenes. When you watch the episodes, it’s obvious. It’s really clear. It’s there, it pops and it’s very exciting. To me, there’s a sense of humanity that comes from this show, and you tend to gravitate toward that. I feel very emotionally connected to these stories, myself, and I think that’s a good sign. Hopefully, people will also feel that way when they watch it. I want to make television that makes people feel like, “Oh, I know that person, I want to spend time with that person, and I want to be in that world.” Hopefully, this will accomplish that.

Rise airs on Tuesday nights on NBC.

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