NewsWorks: Ever wonder what happens to the teachers, administrators, the whole universe of people who work in a large urban high school when it shuts its doors for the last time?
A play now being staged by the Philadelphia Theatre Company at the Suzanne Roberts Theater explores the range of emotions that go into trying to save a school against all circumstances.
3 comments:
This seems like a really cool play. It is always great to see a play about a less discussed topic, especially a less discussed topic from a less discussed perspective. Additionally, it sounds like this play manages to strike a mix between entertaining and thought provoking. Based on this article, I’d really like to see it. I also like the fact that this very much isn’t a play about “heroes and villains.” I’m tend to be annoyed by plays with a hard line between the good guys and the bad guys, so for me, the fact that this play tries to address the complexity of people is nice. I would be curious to hear what teachers think about the play, especially teachers who have taught at a school similar to the one represented in Exit Strategy. I wonder how realistic the play is, and if it isn’t realistic, to what degree and in what ways it is over-dramatized.
Most theatre students are always spitballing ideas off of each other as to what the next great play could be. To make a piece of theatre that affects people, you have to find a theme that is universally relatable and a fresh vehicle to portray that theme. With Exit Strategy, Ike Holter has managed to accomplish this task, by telling a story about determination through a high school closing down. High school tends to be a popular backdrop in the fiction of today, but rarely are the high schools dilapidated, rat-filled messes. I don't think the moral grey areas of the characters is quite as revolutionary as Julian says, as most plays deal with characters that don't fit easily into our schemas of good and bad so as to portray a microcosm of the human condition we're not accustomed to viewing. I think the most interesting aspect of this production is how grimy it seems to be, with many quotes dealing with just how run-down the school is portrayed as. This is an interesting metaphor for the condition of the school system in the united states, and one that has a lot of relevance to high school and college students of today.
For me, it has always been easy to forget that a school does not belong solely, even mostly, to its students. We come and go every day, we walk the halls between classes and laugh and change there, but so do our teachers. And they choose to do it, even though they will never get nearly enough appreciation for all they put in. Everyone has to do the high school thing, but not everyone has to do it twice. "Exit Strategy" seems to question not only what happens when people lose the thing around which their lives revolve - it asks how those people react when they already have so little reason to stay. That is what I think is interesting about this play. It's not a come back story or an inspiring take on how a community rallied to take back its education. It's not even about the teenagers who populate the school. This is the story of the people who have held this community together, and how they cope with losing their grip. I think "Exit Strategy" is an important reminder of how much goes into making even the most decrepit of learning environments function, and how much the people who work to make it happen stand to lose. I think, if nothing else, the play will be a reminder of what it means to continue to give in an environment which stacks the odds against generosity.
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