Debuting at American Stage Theater, just in time for Black History Month, is Pipeline, a heartfelt play by Dominique Morisseau, directed by L. Peter Callender.
When you watch Pipeline at American Stage, you’ll feel as if you’re in a high-school classroom. Whether being back in high school evokes positive memories is up for debate.
Your teacher, Nya, is reading a poem to the class: “We real cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks. This selected poem from Brooks’ The Bean Eaters may sound familiar to those of you who paid attention in English class.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
Nya’s son, Omari, appears onstage in a dreamlike way — not literally in the classroom but somehow strangely connected, in the way a memory is connected to a dream. Omari hauntingly reads the words aloud and suddenly, in a moment of terror, Nya can’t breathe and runs out of the classroom.
The poem is the personification of her worst fears about her son — that he is going to die.
Omari could be the typical mugshot you see in the news. He’s the face of young, black rage. He is dangerous. Criminal. You’re conditioned to be afraid of him.
He’s in the hotly debated school-to-prison pipeline. We know this pipeline; we see it in our newsfeeds every day.
He attacked his teacher in class as other students took videos that went viral. He’ll likely go to jail.
In 90 minutes, playwright Dominique Morisseau explores the complicated issues of race in education. But for once, the story isn’t dehumanizing.
You will cry with Omari and his mother. You’ll shake when you watch Nya have a panic attack. You will feel the humanity, and it will haunt you.
You will realize that every story you’ve been fed about young, black male criminals is far more complicated than a mugshot and an arrest report.
The story isn’t just one story — it’s the stories of many.
It’s a reflection of the school-to-prison pipeline, which, throughout the play, we learn is systemic. It’s not solely about the student, the teacher or the parents. It’s about the structure that has created and allowed this path so many students go down — the entire community of children, parents, leaders, police officers and teachers.
Morisseau said her play was inspired by the murder of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri five years ago.
Pipeline is part of American Stage’s “Life. Out Loud” theme for its 2018-2019 season. Throughout the season, American Stage has committed itself to telling stories that honor diversity and celebrate shared human experience. The dialogue and its presentation were an integral part of the authenticity of the play. Instead of the pretentious sort of language you’d expect in a play, the actors spoke like real people. By using broken sentences, slang and vulgarity, the dialogue gave a more genuine representation of the characters. It showed a realistic portrayal of how people communicate, not some whitewashed version of it.
The costumes were basic and true to the characters, but the acting was what shook the audience. It was so natural and realistic that it didn’t feel like the actors were following stage directions, but rather living their own lives right in front of the house.
I was already in tears by the first scene; Nya’s acting pulled on my heartstrings. Nya called Omari’s father before class, leaving a long emotional voicemail that ended with her saying “I miss you.” She then quickly deleted and re-recorded the voicemail to sound professional and cold. Though I assume that most people in the audience couldn’t relate to the plight of being a black single mother worried for her son’s life, anybody can relate to the feeling of missing somebody you shouldn’t. Loneliness, confusion and hopelessness are universal feelings, regardless of age, color or class.
Nya is played by Gillian Glasco, who is known for her roles in Going in Style (2017), Young Gods of the New City and Jessica Jones (2015). Throughout the play, Nya is portrayed as a guilt-stricken mother trying to find a way to keep her only son safe from the world.
Omari is skillfully played by Andrew Montgomery Coleman, making his American Stage debut. A graduate of North Carolina A&T State University, this young talent will be one to watch.
Playwright Dominique Morisseau has many accomplished works under her belt. She is a busy woman, not only writing plays, but also the book for the new musical, Aint’ Too Proud — The Life and Times of the Temptations. Morisseau’s work has been commissioned by Steppenwolf Theater, Women’s Project and other entities, and has been the recipient of numerous awards.
Callender relates to Pipeline on a personal level, he writes in the playbill. He knows just how Omari felt. Growing up in the Bronx with a single mother who worked multiple jobs and did her best to keep Callender out of the aforementioned “school-to-prison-pipeline,” Callender feels for his childhood friends who fell victim to it.
Black youth are the demographic most often targeted by the “school-to-prison-pipeline,” some targeted as early as third grade, according to the playbill. Callender directed this play with a personal feeling; the characters in this play tug on the heartstrings of both the young and old.
Pipeline | American Stage, 163 3rd St. N., St. Petersburg | Through Feb. 24 | $44 | 727-823-7529 | americanstage.org
This article appears in Feb 14-21, 2019.