Reading Writing & Romance

Wayne Wenders is a career actor in Los Angeles who has achieved a minor, embarrassing level of fame as the 'bowel guy' in a commercial for Percolax. Despite landing a new national root beer commercial, his finances are dire, leading his parents to pressure him into taking a substitute teaching position at a local arts high school run by his former teacher, Brenda Post. Upon arrival, Wayne meets Amy Danville, the head of the English department, who is initially dismissive of his 'live in the moment' acting background and concerned about his lack of pedagogical structure. Wayne struggles to engage the students with Shakespeare until he begins using his acting skills, famously standing on desks to demonstrate prepositions and proposing a student film festival where the class will adapt Shakespearean scenes into modern genres like sci-fi and horror. As Wayne and Amy work together, a romance blossoms. They bond over a 'not-a-date' to a movie and coffee, where Amy confesses her teenage stage fright. However, Wayne's professional life takes a hit when he is edited out of his root beer commercial, leaving him broke. Meanwhile, a jealous and petty fellow teacher named Sid Trautman begins monitoring Wayne's school emails, looking for a reason to get him fired. The conflict peaks when Wayne's agent lands him a lead role in a zombie movie filming in Toronto. Wayne initially decides to leave the school, devastating his students—particularly a talented filmmaker named J.D.—and hurting Amy. Sid seizes this moment to show Amy faked emails that suggest Wayne was merely 'acting' his way through his relationship with her and the school. Realizing that teaching provides a fulfillment acting never did, Wayne turns down the movie role at the last minute. He returns to the school to finish the film project. With the help of J.D., Wayne discovers that Sid hacked his account to frame him. At the student film festival, Sid attempts to blackmail Wayne and Amy for 'fraternizing,' but Principal Brenda reveals she has proof of Sid's illegal computer hacking. Sid is transferred, and the film festival is a massive success. The movie concludes with Wayne accepting a full-time teaching position and proposing to Amy during a summer stock rehearsal using lines from 'The Tempest.'