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Dead White Males
AOL DIGITAL CITY A drama by William Missouri Downs about the dark
side of the teaching profession. Janet is a new teacher facing her first
evaluation. Her idealism and hope as an educator slowly deteriorate as
she realizes that education is dominated by politically motivated people
who obsess over color-coded memos and educational philosophies.
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NORTHERN LIGHTS Janet Greenberg is a bright, energetic young teacher
full of hopes and dreams, for her young students. She's teaching history,
even though she majored in art - a common occurrence at Thomas Paine Grade
and Middle School. In the corner of her classroom, school board members
are actively interfering with her lesson, while "attempting"
to go unnoticed. They are Janet's constant evaluators, tormentors and
the bane of her perky existence. "Dead White Males," at The Chance Theatre, is a dark comedy, written by William Missouri Downs. It explores the teaching "myth," as it spins out of control, while viewing the traditional "something to fall back on" as a move up, from the classroom, to waitressing! Directing this production, with insight and a great feeling for the material, is Marla Gam-Hudson. Gam-Hudson, herself a drama teacher at Cal-State Northridge, zeros in on every aspect of the "edu-folly." From the constant barrage of color coded memos and renaming the school mascot with an non-offensive persona, to writing your own self depricating evaluations - so you have room for improvement - Gam-Hudson admits, "I laughed when I read the script. But, I've seen it all, for real, many times over!" One of the subtle touches Gam-Hudson employs is finding other actual teachers to fill key roles. Master Teacher Burns (Autumn Browne) was the "Nurse Ratchet" character of the school. In real life charming Browne, teaches drama to 227 students at Brookhurst Junior High School. Another teacher hanging on by a thread, Doris (Karan Benton) is Janet's disillusioned mentor. At her "day Job" Benton works with children and undergraduate students in a special project at UCI. Dr. Ozy Mandias (Robert G. Davis) plays the head of the school board as Jim Jones, with an Amway franchise! Davis was a last minute replacement for an actual Los Angeles school teacher, Scott Allen. Filling out the rest of the exquisite roles are Art Teacher and turncoat Ms. Woods (Grace Lynne); Principal Pettlogg (Bob May) who "unfortunately" loves children; and 14-year-old Johnny (Joseph Horne). Playing big for his age, in this evolving stage production at the Chance Theater, Horne is concurrently performing in their main stage production of "Three Days of Rain" - Where he plays two characters. Wow! The dead white males, referred to in "Dead White Males," are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, etc. The school board wants to rewrite history to reflect more "cultural diversity." While they are at it, they also want to censor the school play - "A Chorus Line" - eliminating the gay character and replacing the big hit number with less suggestive lyrics. The results are hilarious and at the same time devastating. "Dead White Males" is to education what
"Catch-22" was to the military. It's a farce, unless you've
been in the trenches. If you have, it's a documentary. Newcomer Abbey
Forbes has recently arrived in town from Baltimore and showed much skill
in the least flamboyant role. The tiny actress - she could represent the
Lollipop Guild - is big on talent and seems like she's found a home at
The Chance. "Dead White Males" is adult in nature and has some
language and surprising violence that may be unsettling. When it comes
to making the grade, I'd give it a B+ and make the recommendation that,
if you see it, you bring a teacher. This is a tale without an end but,
in recognizing the problem it's a heck of a beginning.
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ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER Billed as "a year in the trenches of teaching," "Dead White Males" is a very dark comedy that uses satire to put America's public education system in its crosshairs. Sometimes it hits the bull's eye, with trenchant observations about the hypocrisy of administrators and school board members with little or no background in education trying to steer those in the trenches - the teachers. At other times, the humor is very broad, and when the script's sharpness disappears, so does the point of "Dead White Males." The play seems a natural for its writer, William Missouri Downs, who has not only spent part of his career as a playwright and an author on the subject of playwriting but also as a teacher in the so-called trenches of the system. That system, judging by a new production of Downs' play at The Chance Theater, is a brutal one in which politics is the endgame and the supposed goal of helping students to learn is chewed up and spit out as a byproduct, along with many a teacher. At first glance, "Dead White Males" has much in common with another seriocomic play on a similar subject, John Twomey's "Teachers' Lounge." Like that play, this one introduces us to the public school system through the person of a first-year teacher. Like Twomey's protagonist, Janet Greenberg is a starry-eyed idealist who loves the idea of teaching, is enthusiastic about her work and genuinely hopes to help her students. And like "Teacher's Lounge," there are those jaded teachers who know the ropes and who try to steer Janet from what they perceive as a foolhardy course. But thankfully, "Dead White Males" has a lot more to say about the educational system - and, by reflection, our society as a whole - than "Teachers' Lounge," which simply tells us that teachers come in eager and hopeful and are gradually ground into cynical burnouts. Maybe it's Downs' own insights into the system he's mocking that inform "Males" and give it the edge it needs to get its points across. The play rewards us with more than one main character, each with a story arc that proceeds logically from start to finish: Janet, of course; and Doris Franklin, an old burnout certified to teach history but assigned as a science teacher. In Marla Gam-Hudson's staging, the play's West Coast premiere, things hum along at an agreeably jumpy pace. We're thrown smack into the Thomas Paine school, a supposedly typical Midwestern (Kansas) grade school and middle school. Downs draws the battle lines right off the bat. The administrators are the school board's head, the officious Dr. Ozy Mandias (Robert Davis); the autocratic Master Teacher Burns (Autumn Browne); and the school's bumbling principal, Mr. Pettlogg (Bob May). The teachers are Janet (Abby Forbes), Doris (Karán Benton), and Doris' fellow burn out, Ms. Woods (Grace Lynne). If "Dead White Males" teaches us anything, it's that, as Doris succinctly and sadly informs Janet, "You can't separate teaching from politics." Indeed, the play trumpets that fact, time and again. When teachers are assigned to put together a particularly dry lesson plan, they're advised to "make it a game" to keep students interested. When the subject of homosexuality arises in the classroom, the board hurriedly passes a "Prohibition of Alternative Lifestyles Act" to quell the discussion. Throughout the play, the board is a rabidly anti-religious, homophobic force whose stifling presence is felt at every level. ...It's the characters of Janet and Doris that affect us the most, though, putting the message of "Males" in relatable terms. By play's end, Janet has learned how to play the game and cover her rear, while her presence has awakened Doris' long-dormant idealism. As the protagonists, Forbes and Benton play off each other well, pulling off the script's most surprising twist: the development of their genuine friendship. Forbes invests Janet with genuine kindness and altruism. Benton's performance is even more of a revelation. Initially tough and jaded, she makes Doris' journey a credible one, showing the board's unceasing monitoring of every move as a cruel, dehumanizing force. ...overall Gam-Hudson's supporting cast does the job - especially May's quivering Principal Pettlogg, whose latent fears come to the fore in private psychiatric sessions. It all proves Downs' thesis that the human spirit
must not be squelched if education is to be allowed to fulfill its true
promise.
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