AUBURN — It’s the last dress rehearsal.

Standing in front of 30 middle-schoolers transformed into goddesses, mariners and fools, Liz Rollins knows this is one of her last chances to offer advice. Her words of wisdom include, “Spirits, make sure we can’t see your underwear.”

But she can’t leave them with that.

“Remember how we were talking the other day about getting to the point where you don’t just say the right lines in the right places at the right times? Remember that? When you get to the edge and you decide if you go any farther?” she asks. “Yesterday I think you guys found your wings. Today, you should fly.”

After a moment of silence, one boy calls out, “Well, that’s inspirational!” and a couple of others roll their eyes.

Still.

Everyone is grinning.

Because this is Rollins and she has a knack for saying the right thing at the right time, even if it seems goofy.

“She’s amazing,” said 12-year-old Isabel Bassett, a member of the stage crew. “And she knows us.”

But this isn’t just the last dress rehearsal for this weekend’s performance of the Shakespeare play, “The Tempest.” It’s the last dress rehearsal for Rollins.

After 11 years, nearly two dozen Auburn Middle School plays and a career teaching music and drama to teenagers, the 38-year-old has decided to step away. With a 14-month-old son at home, the long hours and chaotic schedule are too much.

“It breaks my heart,” she said. “I really don’t want to stop.”

Rollins never planned to teach middle school. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music education and voice from McGill University in Canada and a master’s degree in conducting from the New England Conservatory in Boston. She planned a career conducting college-level chorus, but her first two jobs involved teaching music at Windham High School and Gould Academy in Bethel. Then she arrived at Auburn Middle School. 

In Auburn, she taught music and ran the after-school drama program. With her parents involved in summer stock, she’d been raised around the theater and had long ago fallen in love with it. What she hadn’t expected was to fall in love with teaching middle-schoolers.

“They’re just so vital, you know?” she said. “They’re old enough that you can have an intelligent conversation, but they’re still young enough to be playful. They’re still willing to try things. Their minds are still open.”

Her attachment to the kids and the theater program propelled her through some grueling schedules. In addition to her regular job teaching music, twice a year she picked and edited a play, chose a cast and crew, hand-sewed costumes, helped build the sets, taught students makeup and lighting, and directed the middle-schoolers through the tricky language of Shakespeare or the precise timing of comedies or the maturity of dramas.

“They’re excited; they’re just excited to be somebody else,” she said. “When they’re trying on so many personalities in real life, it seems natural for them to want to do it (on stage),” she said.

Rollins expected a lot of her kids, and the kids didn’t disappoint. They learned not only how to act, but how to take direction, gain confidence and work together as a kind of family.

“Their shows, you can’t touch them,” Principal Jim Hand said. “The quality is just unbelievable. Every time the play is over, you can see it in the kids — they’re completely exhausted and wiped out, but so exhilarated by what they’ve accomplished. It’s magical how she does it.”

Two years ago, Rollins’ cast and crew for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” won the prestigious Moss Hart Memorial Award from the New England Theatre Conference. Reviewers will be in the audience again Friday to judge “The Tempest” for the same award.

“We have a reputation now,” said Grace Hayes, one of the kids responsible for wigs, hair and makeup for “The Tempest.”

While Rollins fell in love with the students’ enthusiasm, they fell in love with her fun-loving spirit and drive. They took to calling her simply “Rollins,” a middle-school term of endearment less formal than the traditional “Ms. Rollins.” They remembered her long after they graduated from eighth grade. 

“Rollins was always the one to, like, push you, to make you try your best and just get out of that comfort zone,” said Paige Weber, who volunteered when she was a middle-school student for every play Rollins directed. Now an Edward Little High School sophomore, Weber is serving as assistant director for “The Tempest.” 

In October, Rollins left her teaching job to spend more time with her infant son, but she kept her position as drama coach. She could still produce plays, she thought. She wouldn’t have to completely leave her students.

But her husband, a teacher and coach, often works into the evening, which made child care a problem. The schedule proved to be too difficult for her family.

Rollins made the heart-wrenching decision to leave the drama program. She hopes to return to teaching when her son is older.

“I’ll miss the kids more than anything,” she said. “I’ll miss the chaos.”

The school will hire a replacement for next year.

“The Tempest” will run at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the middle school. Tickets are $5 at the door.

The students have planned a goodbye for Rollins that last night, though they’re keeping it a surprise. They say they do expect some tears.

“I don’t think any other drama teacher is going to be like her,” said 13-year-old crew member Alexandra Rainey.

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What: “The Tempest”

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday

Where: Auburn Middle School

Cost: $5 at the door