When Stonington High School Drama director Erin Sousa-Stanley was fishing around for a spring show, she could have staged any number of the usual standbys. But instead she chose to produce a New London playwright, Nicholas Checker, whose play with music by Rick Spencer called “Run to Elysia” was first produced at the Local Playwrights Festival at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford more than two decades ago.

“I was just inspired by the story,” Sousa-Stanley said about the play, which the students will perform this weekend at Stonington High School. “It’s a different sort of piece. I thought it would be a challenge.”

The story, based partially on history and mostly on legend, revolves around the Greek courier Pheidippides, who is given the assignment of running from Marathon to Athens to warn the Athenians of the impending arrival of Persian ships.

Checker said the script was inspired by his own love for running, which was nurtured by the late former Boston Marathon victor John Kelley of Mystic, whose graddaughter played a wood nymph in the original production.

And he said another local Boston Marathon winner, Amby Burfoot of Mystic, encouraged him to pursue a revival of the play. Checker said he liked the idea of a runner being the hero of the story, showing that you don’t have to be brawny or aggressive to save the day.

“Some of the greatest runners in the world would have been destroyed by that race,” he said. “He did the most noble thing a runner could do. He not only saved a city, he saved a civilization.”

Of course, a historical play with a long-distance runner as the main character is not the easiest kind to dramatize, much less produce. Sousa-Stanley has decided to stage it in the round, which is the first time her troupe has attempted a play in which the audience will be on the stage surrounding the players on three sides.

“It’s a challenge to direct in the round,” Sousa-Stanley, an East Lyme resident, said. “But I think it serves the purpose well.”

Sousa-Stanley added that she likes the fact that “Run to Elysia” has an educational message about a brief time in history that still resonates today. Students have lots of questions, and she will often ask them to look into the myths and history of the era.

The play, with a cast of 16, involves dance and movement as well as stage fighting. Music played off to the side includes a piano, conga drum and glockenspiel.

Checker, who has met with the cast, said he is excited to see “Run to Elysia” come back to life. And he emphasizes it’s a play that couldn’t have been done without the musical settings by Spencer, a former staff musician for the Mystic Seaport Museum.

“I was trying to make the music fit,” Spencer said. “There was no way to know what music sounded like in ancient Greece.”

“His music captured the spirit of the whole legend of Pheidippides,” Checker said.

The play has resonance for teenagers, said Sousa-Stanley, with its emphasis on overcoming adversity and endurance to transcend a normal life and go change the world. It teaches the importance of finishing, as Checker said, which is the most important word of all when it comes to running.

Pheidippides is tempted not to finish his run, especially as he travels through the idyllic Elysian Fields, but his will forces him on.

“He kind of gets knocked down and beat up, but he keeps going,” Checker said. “It’s a tribute to the human spirit. You cannot surrender.”

l.howard@theday.com

If you go

What: "Run to Elysia"

Where: Stonington High School auditorium, 176 South Broad St., Stonington

When: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Tickets: $10

Call: (860) 460-1001