BRUNSWICK — After nearly 25 years in the Brunswick High School Theater Department, Pamela Mutty is taking 10 students to perform “Flowers for Algernon” in Edinburgh, Scotland this summer in what she calls a “last love letter to the school.”

The students will travel for the American High  School Theatre Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, where they will stay for two full weeks, attend workshops, travel and perform four times.

Mutty said the Brunswick High School Players were recommended for the festival a number of times over the years, but with so many rehearsals and full-time teaching commitment, she never felt she had the time to devote to the lengthy application process.

After she retired and then went back to work part-time last year, she finally had the time. She applied and the Brunswick High School Players earned a spot. The American High School Theatre Festival flew her out to Scotland to see that year’s slate of performances so she could get an idea of what her team would face. 

Once she saw those performances, she knew she would do “whatever it takes to make sure” the students were able to go. And that meant fundraising. A lot of fundraising.

For 10 students, Mutty and a few chaperones to go, the trip will cost just under $90,000.

“It’s a ridiculous amount of money,” Mutty said, “but so far we’ve had an event almost every week.” Through a yard sale, faculty comedy play, bottle drive, sponsored nights at local restaurants and a Zumba dance marathon, they have raised just over $30,000. Funds from local performances of “Flowers for Algernon,” which opens Thursday, as well as the spring musical, “Mamma Mia!” will also go toward the cost of the trip, as will a few other theater-based events like a workshop for younger children in the winter.

Rather than choose an entirely new play for the students to learn in March, Mutty has cut the 2 1/2-hour long “Flowers for Algernon” down to a 70-minute production, also whittling the roughly 25-person ensemble to just the key 10 players.

“We were told to ‘bring whatever you can do best,’” she said, and with a show like “Flowers for Algernon,” the students will really be able to show off what they can do.

The show, based on a novel and short story of the same name by Daniel Keyes, was adapted for the stage in the late 1960s. It features Charlie Gordon, a mentally disabled man who undergoes an experimental surgery to make him smarter. The test was successful on a mouse named Algernon. Charlie’s intelligence begins to improve, and within a matter of weeks he is a genius and is aware of how hard his life was before. Suddenly though, Algernon takes a turn for the worse and begins regressing and Charlie begins to fear the same might happen to him. This is a “very challenging piece,” Mutty said, but theater has been her passion for the past quarter century, and as her last show as director, she feels confident the students will do a great job.

Wyeth Tobey, who plays Charlie, said that during the audition process he was concerned about possibly crossing a line — wanting to portray people with disabilities in a way that was effective, but not in a way that made fun of them. He drew from examples like the 1993 film adaptation of “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” and, more recently, Netflix’s “Atypical” to create his version of Charlie Gordon.

Tobey is in almost every scene and had a lot of lines to memorize, not to mention a 

number of quick costume changes. But for him and his fellow cast members, that is not always the hardest part of the show.

The show, largely a product of its time, uses language that is considered offensive today. For example, Hannah Perreault, who plays Alice Kinnian, Charlie’s teacher, said she struggled with the fact that her character uses the word “retarded” a number of times throughout the show. Madeleine Blakemore, who plays Dr. Jane Strauss, said she also had a hard time with the fact that her character admits to not viewing Charlie as a human being until his intelligence increased.

The story is particularly important with the social change that is happening, Blakemore said, as people are becoming more accepting of people who are different from themselves. Still, there is a lot in the show that may be challenging and emotional for some viewers.

But to Blakemore, that’s part of its purpose.

“It’s designed to make you feel things, whether they are good or bad,” said Josh Flanagan, who plays Professor Harold Nemur. “You don’t get a lot of stories where the emotion is so … raw,” he said.

Tobey, Perreault, Blakemore and Flanagan all plan to pursue creative arts after they graduate in the spring. Like Mutty, they have a lot of passion for theater, something they hope will come through in their performances both this weekend and in Scotland.

“Flowers for Algernon” is playing at 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and a 2 p.m. matinee Saturday at the Brunswick High School Crooker Theatre. Tickets at the door are $15 for adults and $12 for students and seniors. 

hlaclaire@timesrecord.com