Pittsburgh Current: In March of this year, researchers from Stanford, Harvard and the US Census Bureau released a study about economic attainment in various racial US communities and the results were staggering: “Growing up in a high-income family” the report said “provides no insulation from disparities. Black children born to parents in the top income quintile are almost as likely to fall to the bottom quintile as they are to remain in the top quintile. By contrast, white children born in the top quintile are nearly five times as likely to stay there as they are to fall to the bottom.”
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I am seeing this play tomorrow with Annika and Davine, and I could not be more excited.
The struggles of black lives in poverty and despair is one that is explored in theater many times, but this is a very new take on the situation. The black families living and trying to survive in white communities. For almost a decade, I lived in a predominantly white suburban neighborhood, where my family was the only black family for blocks. Growing up and having my mom teaching me how to present myself in a way to where I was least likely to be discriminated against because I was smart and well-behaved. I never thought anything of these lessons until later after I got into theater and realized that she was teaching me survival skills. My mother was one of three black students in her entire high school, so this play really jumps out and grabs my attention. As this play is described, in the age of social media and cell phones, things can be easily misconstrued. Especially as one of the only black students, to be easily discriminated against in a institute filled with systematic racism, I can only imagine how the author has explored these feelings and experiences.
I really love City Theater and I think that what they do is so amazing and they really push the limits and explore topics that are necessary to this time and age. I think that Pipeline is especially relevant because there is a lot of talk about race and pay gaps currently. Most of the pay gap talk is about women and men, but race also plays a factor in that. However when I read this what I thought was most interesting was the fact that black children born to a higher status family are as likely to fall from that high status as they are to stay in it. For me, I always thought about people moving up in the social ladder but moving down was not on my mind. That is a very depressing statistic and not one that a lot of people know so I think it is important to fix the economic system and help people support themselves.
Last year in Megan's special topics class we read Pipeline and I really enjoyed it then, so I'm happy to see it's being well recieved here in Pittsburgh. When we had our discussion in class about this play last year Reginald L. Douglas, the play's director, came in to hear our thoughts about the show and also talked about his own perspective for its direction. It's also very cool to me that just a couple of miles from campus there's going to be another Dominique Morisseau play running at the same time as Detroit '67, especially now that she has just received the MacArthur Genius Grant for her work as a playwright. I'm really hoping that I will be able to make it over to South Side to see Pipeline before it closes, as I have usually really enjoyed City Theatre's work and I'm interested to see their take on this show.
I think City Theater is kind of killing it this year with their season selection. Every time I read about the plays that they are doing I am excited to be in a city that celebrates, promotes and works to put diversity on stage. I think that this is a new take on what it means to be poor and American and I hope that I get to see it before it closes. City Theater is a perfect example of why it is just not that hard to do work by diverse playwrights about diverse people in order to bring in a newer younger and more diverse audience. It just isn't that hard. I think something that frustrates me so much about this conversation that I think every regional theater in the country is having around season selection is that the plays are out there and the people who want to do them are out there. There are no more excuses for not doing work that matches the make up of the country in every way. I am so proud of City Theater and I can't wait to see what comes next.
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