Peekskill High School Stages a New Play with a Relevant Theme

The state of public education in America has been in the news a great deal lately, with the controversy over the new NYC School Chancellor pick, the movie “Waiting for Superman”, cuts in school funding and more.  This weekend the Peekskill High School Drama Club will tackle the subject in their own way through a production of Nilaja Sun’s new play No Child . . .   Performances will be Friday & Saturday, December 3 & 4 at 7:30 pm in the Peekskill High School Auditorium.  Admission is $10 for Adults and $5 dollars for students.  Tickets may be purchased at the door.  Due to some of the mature subject matter, the play is intended for teens and adults only.

Originally a one woman play in which the playwright Nilaja Sun performed all sixteen characters, the play adapts nicely to a cast of 16.  The play takes place in the struggling Malcolm X High School in the Bronx where a teaching artist has come to mount a play with a rather troubled class.  The title references the controversial “No Child Left Behind” education legislation.  Peekskill High’s new drama coach, Katie Schmidt Feder, chose the play because even though the title may not be familiar to audiences, the characters will be.  PHS Senior Robinson Vasquez, who plays Mr. Johnson, a teacher, says the play has “strong content, something that the school and the community need to see because it shows the real world.”   Freshman Sophia Sammonds who plays the role of Malika and understudies two other roles says, “We can relate to this.  We’re in High School too!”  Another cast member said simply: “It’s Real.”  The play is VERY real and sometimes that means capturing the less-than-mature attitudes and far-too-mature and sometimes inappropriate language of the teen characters.  If some of the language may offend the ears early on in the play, it is only to show the evolution of the students as they learn the power of art to encourage civility and humanity. 

Playwright to visit:  The students will be able to learn even more about their characters and the creation of the play when the playwright journeys up from NYC on Tuesday, November 30 to watch a rehearsal, answer questions and work with the cast.   Ms. Sun has won multiple awards for the show, including a 2007 Obie Award for Distinguished Performance, the 2007 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New American Play, and the 2007 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival Award for Best Solo Show.  She has continued to tour the show all over the world, most recently in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is happy to come support one of the first High School casts to perform the show.  Ms. Sun writes she “is more than thrilled to be a part of the theatre making experience with the young thespians of Peekskill High!”

No Child…  doesn’t only focus on the somber, frustrating realities of a struggling school.  The cast also finds the humor, life and love in their characters in the fast-paced, 90-minute play, which will provide a chance for the audience to relate, reflect, laugh and as one character says “learn a little somethin’.”