Pipeline

by Dominique Morisseau, Sophina Brown (Narrator), Eugene Byrd (Narrator)

Nya, a dedicated teacher at an inner-city school, is desperate to give her only son opportunities that her own public high school students will never have. When a controversial incident at his private school threatens to get Omari expelled, Nya must confront her own deepest fears to give her son a future.

Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood in February 2022.

Directed by Larry Powell

Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast production starring:

Sophina Brown as Nya Eugene Byrd as Dun Demetrius Grosse as Xavier Sharon Lawrence as Laurie X Mayo as Jasmine Uyoata Udi as Omari Karen Malina White as P.A. Announcer Student Voices (Olathe East High School, Olathe, Kansas): Rabiatu Amadu Calista Wanjiku Damarion Green-Burk William Kalihamwe Coach Jason Peete

Senior Producer: Anna Lyse Erikson

Prepared for Audio by Mark Holden for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood

Recording Engineer, Sound Designer, Editor and Mixer: Charles Carroll

Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin

Foley Artist: Jeff Gardner

Music by Jimmy Keys, AKA "J. Keys."

Copyright 2017 Dominique Morisseau. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Originally Produced by Lincoln Center Theater in 2017, New York City.

Pipeline was commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago; Martha Lavey, Artistic Director, David Hawkanson, Executive Director.

Genres: Plays, School, Audiobook, Drama, Fiction, Theatre, Read For School

2 pages, Audiobook

First published October 30, 2018

About the author

Dominique Morisseau is an American playwright and actress from Detroit, Michigan. She has authored over nine plays, three of which are part of a cycle titled The Detroit Projects. She is a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship for 2018.

Reviews

[Taury · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau is a very short play based on an inner city family who is trying to raise her son in a tough world in the right way. She is desperately trying to keep her son out of prison. She sends him to a good school. This is a dramatic performance that shows the difficulty teenagers are facing. Along with their own entitlement and difficulty with impulse control. Wonderful presentation.

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this play. From the perspective of a technical theatre professional, there's not a lot of stuff to challenge sets/costumes, but wow, the drama. This is so good, so difficult, so necessary.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished: 10.06.2018
Genre: play
Rating: B
Conclusion:
Dominique Morisseau...
on the list of Top 20 Most Produced Playwrights
…in America 2015–16, with 10 productions of her plays being produced.

Review

[Mckayla Witt]

I think I’ll have to revisit this one to have a solid opinion about it, not sure if the LA works production works for me completely

[Theresa Connors · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short but powerful play that examines the school-to-prison pipeline. The audience sees a day or two in the life of a teenage boy whose parents have taken great efforts to put him in a "good" school where he will have a chance to succeed in life. The shifting points of view allow the audience to really see the tragedy of people not listening to each other or making efforts to understand. We see how quickly this boy's situation turned, his narrow escape, and the pain it causes everyone. The integration of Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool" throughout the play was haunting and effective.

[Isabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah mothers can’t distinguish between selflessness and sacrifice…all they do is sacrifice. Why must they be the ones to sacrifice?

Nya talking to her son Omari:

“I will take a bullet for you. I will suffocate the sun for you. I will steal the sky for you. I will blind Moses for you. I will strip the wind and the rain and the forests for you. Before I let you die or rot or lose your freedom, I will surrender my own. You know that?”

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

I listened to the LA Theatre Works production of Pipeline, a play that has a lot to say about the school to prison pipeline. The acting from Sophina Brown as Nya and Uyoata Udi as Nya's son Omari was phenomenal and really added to the emotional impact of the story. I would recommend listening to this production for sure.

[emma gaddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

honestly the play was gorgeous, the writing was beautiful and very specific to the intended audience and characters being portrayed. i would LOVE to see a live performance, the writing just really blew me away.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although it tackles an important topic, too often the characters' discourse descends into 'speechifying' that bears no resemblance to how people actually talk IRL, and thus into turgid melodrama.

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important.

[Rosamund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Passionate, political and personal.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really powerful. Not what I was expecting. People are complex and layered. Appreciated the POV of teachers.

[ariana · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really really liked this.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dominique Morriseau is fast becoming my favorite contemporary playwrite.

[LATOYA LEWIS · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book 4 times, and each time, I noticed different things. This book spoke to me each time. Pipeline is about a mother, Nya, raising her son Omari in the inner city. Omari is wondering why he isn't good enough for his father to spend time with him. Nya, a teacher does her best to give him better opportunities to include private education, although she teaches in a public school. Dominique highlights the issues mothers face while raising their children alone, also focusing on the absent parent and their miniscule contributions. Nya is trying her best not to let Omari fall into the school-to-prison pipeline that is prevalent in the Black community. Omari voice speaks volumes, too.... hearing your child's voice on the decisions we make in their best interest isn't valued enough. Although it's their lives, they should have some say so too. I'm sure I'll probably read this book a couple more times.#GreatRead #Book1of2024 #Bookworm #Whatsnext

[Max Ferguson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it for my theatre arts class. I enjoyed it a lot. I liked how the poem came up through out the play. There are a lot of intense moments in the play but they are done in a way that isn’t overwhelming. I’m sure sure how I feel about the open ending but I respect the fact that it gives you a little hope that the charges weren’t pressed. I do wish they did something different with Jasmine. She was there for too little but I don’t think anything good could have been added to the plot without changing the storyline. The plot point of realizing Omari was planning on running away could have been done differently. Saying that, I have no hate to that choice have having jasmine, I just wouldn’t be opposed to that aspect of the story being slightly different. Good play!

[MH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the title and the cover image, the focus of this sharp, tense play isn't on a young Black man in an inner-city school, it's on his mother, and the profound anxiety she has in keeping him out of the school-to-prison pipeline. There's a lot to admire in this - the way Morisseau writes a teenager who can't yet express how he feels and what he needs, the way she shows us life at two very different high schools clearly but without being didactic or obvious, and mostly the fear and worry of a single mother trying to keep her son safe. It's very emotional and very human, and it's not surprising it gets staged all the time.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This play is from 2016, but continues to be extremely relevant to present day conversations about how schools are a powder keg of traumatized students, inflexible structures, and systemic racism. Using Gwendolyn Brooks's poem "We Real Cool" as a centerpiece, Morisseau crafts dynamic scenes that leap off the page. Likewise, her characters' dialogue is natural and realistic, making the reader feel like a fly on the wall of the teachers' lounge or family room. The work taken together is stunning and full of humanity.

[Kameka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and relevant play

Short play that depicts a day in the life of Omari who has an unfortunate incident at his private school. Interwoven throughout the play are a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks and the plot of Richard Wright's "Native Son". There are many topics subtly addressed in this brief story. I imagine a staging of it could be incredibly moving and thought-provoking. For me, the sign of a great play is one that leaves you wanting more and I certainly wanted more after getting to the end of "Pipeline".

[Anna Goldstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This play was FABULOUS!! In such a short time, Morrisseau created a dynamic and unforgettable cast of characters, multiple moving narratives, and great ruminations on the education system and school to prison pipeline. Covered tons of topic — private schools, policing in school, the usage of social media to dictate cupability, three strikes and zero tolerance, complex family dynamics — and still had great interpersonal narratives. Many brilliant throughlines and a clever ending. One of the best plays I’ve read.

[Genny · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much praise to Dominique Morisseau. This is a really important play, I feel the need to run to all of my white/non-black friends, give them a copy, and say READ NOW YES NOW DO IT NOW, cause it just really beautifully illustrates black lives/perspectives in a thoughtful real way, especially Omari's story, and his experience at a preppy white-dominant private school. BRB, I'm running to my friends and telling them to read it lol

[Cathy Divine-Koch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This play is an excellent choice for a Language Arts classroom. We can discuss the play through multiple lenses including gender, race, or socio-political. We can discuss how these social constructs intersect. We can focus on language and how it changes depending on with whom we are talking. My students enjoyed getting to read this play out in class (with permission to swear) because the language, characters, story, and theme are authentic to their experience.

[Paul Ataua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inspired by Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow, the play focuses in on the fact despite apparently better educational opportunities, attitudes to young Black men in those schools remain the same and there lies another section of the pipeline that leads to incarceration. Short and worth the 75 minutes it takes to listen to it even if it left me feeling that it did little more than touch the surface of what is a much deeper problem. Give it the time it deserves!

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an intensely beautiful play. In addition to reading it, I had the privilege to watch a broadcast of The Lincoln Center production, which is stunning. The characters are so very real, the dialogue at turns funny and heartbreaking. Everything about this play is challenging, heartfelt, moving, and thought-provoking. Highly recommended.

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This was a really timely play about Black culture, expectations put on young Black men, and the education of Black students. I also think that the one white character in the play, an older teacher who has spent her career in an urban school, offers a pretty accurate perspective of what it is like to be white and be in the minority.

[Natalie T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful drama with passionate, eloquent characters and an instantly recognizable conflict: a teenaged boy in trouble, and the tortured but impotent responses of those who love him and want to save him from those life-altering words: "they're talking pressing charges . . . ."

Haunting, with exquisite mastery of language and six rich roles to challenge and delight actors. Superb.

[Arin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written play and a good quick read. Although it can feel a bit heavy-handed and didactic at times, Morisseau balances what she is trying to say with flawed and interesting characters that make it a sad yet intriguing examination of the struggles that come with being black in America today.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The integration of the poem “We Real Cool” into the narrative made for really emotional reading. Highly recommend and I hate that I missed this play when they performed it in my city last year.

[Gabrielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply moving and important. This is everything contemporary plays should be about - undefined space and the music of language and packing so much into so little. I hope I can see this performed live one day.

[Jer Lesperance · Rating 5 out of 5]

really beautiful and a great commentary on the prison pipeline system for black people in the united states. you can feel the fear and tension through the pages through the dialogue and strong thematic symbolism. one of my favourite plays i read last semester.