PIPELINE


The son of an African-American inner-city high school teacher struggles to fit into the posh private academy his divorced parents have sent him to in Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline, a critically acclaimed Lincoln Center hit whose gripping Los Angeles Premiere marks a major coup for the Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company at The Art Of Acting Studio in Hollywood.

Fadhia Carmelle Marcelin plays Nya Joseph, who’s already got enough on her plate dealing with her own students when Fernwood Academy informs her that teenage Omari (Nate Memba) faces likely suspension (and possible expulsion) from the prestigious prep school after a classroom incident involving him and a (presumably white) teacher gets captured on video by his cellphone-toting classmates.

As Pipeline segues from teachers’ lounge to classroom to dormitory to hospital waiting room, Morisseau introduces us to a diverse cast of supporting characters: Omari’s Latina classmate/girlfriend Jasmine (Ari Sucar), who feels as out of place at Fernbrook as he does; Nya’s Caucasian work colleague Laurie (Jennifer Sorenson), who misses the good old days when a few whacks to a misbehaving teen’s bottom could turn a troublemaker into an almost straight-A student; school security guard Dun (Omari Williams), who’s sweet on Nya; and Nya’s ex Xavier (Jon Joseph Gentry), a high-powered marketing executive who thinks it’s high time Omari came to live with him.

As Nya agonizes about her son’s current whereabouts, his immediate future, and the dangers he faces on a daily basis simply because of the color of his skin, playwright Morisseau poses multiple thought-provoking questions while exploring multiple points of view.

Nya’s sympathy for her son’s predicament is colored by her conviction that what a teacher says goes. Jasmine shares Omari’s belief that their parents would have done better had they let them study among kids who don’t see them as “less than” because of their economic situation and race.

Dun has his own troubles staying on top of things when multiple classroom incidents demand his immediate attention. Laurie, still recovering from reconstructive facial surgery following a physical assault at school, vows not to be forced into early retirement. Xavier is convinced that the time has come for a father’s stronger hand, even if it means a custody fight with his ex.

And throughout it all lurks the question of whether Omari, like the pool players in black poet Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool,” is doomed to “die soon.”

It’s a lot for a playwright to put on her plate, and yet Pipeline never feels overloaded nor its characters shortchanged despite its brief ninety-minute running time.

It also provides a racially diverse cast with plenty of opportunities to shine in performances finely honed on the Art Of Acting Studio stage by director Bryan Keith.

The equally memorable Marcelin and Memba take the play’s two meatiest roles and run with them, the former displaying a teacher’s intelligence and grit, a mother’s tough love, and an ex-wife’s resentment and rage as the latter digs deep into an adolescent’s pain and angst and bravado and vulnerability.

Sucar’s tough-on-the-outside, tender-on-the inside girlfriend, Gentry’s alpha male of an ex, Sorenson’s battle-scarred veteran of the public school trenches, and Williams’ salt-of-the-earth security guard are absolutely terrific as well, Morisseau giving each of them at least one scene in which to strut some potent dramatic stuff.

A part of me can’t help wishing that Pipeline’s Los Angeles Premiere featured the kind of world-class production design a major regional theater would have given it, one that would not have required lugging furniture on stage and off between each one of the play’s nine scene changes, but on the plus side, set designer Johnny Patrick Yoder, lighting designer Ray Jones, costume designer Aja Morris-Smiley, sound designer Carter Dean, and projection designer Vanessa Fernandez deserve credit for doing as much as they can on what was likely a shoestring budget. (That tickets go for a mere $18 is another major plus.)

Michelle Bonebright-Carter is assistant director. Lou Acosta understudies the roles of Dun and Xavier. Jen Albert is intimacy and fight director. Cristina Glezoro is production stage manager. Ken Werther is publicist.

A lot has happened over the four long years since Art Of Acting Studio’s last fully staged production in 2019, but the arrival of Dominique Morisseau’s powerful, impactful Pipeline makes it well worth the wait.

Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater at the Art of Acting Studio, 1017 N. Orange Drive, Los Angeles.
https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/1166054

–Steven Stanley
August 2, 2023
Photos: Kim Fowler

 

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