by UVI select students
“Breaking the fourth wall” with the use of production pre-recording on Zoom for streaming was a perfect way to present the acclaimed play, “Pipeline” by Dominique Morisseau. In response to the Covid19 pandemic and demonstration of theatre as a resilient artform, Marshall Jones III directed an ensemble cast of six Florida International University Theatre students – Ana Maria Gorayeb, Cameron Holder, Dayron Leon, Priscilla Montano, Emily Taylor-Madrid and Warren Welds.
The character Nya Joseph is an inner high school teacher who engages the audience several times throughout the 90 minute performance by speaking as though they were in a classroom. She offers her class, and the audience, an extended explanation of the poem “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks and a glimpse into the dismal world of young teenaged black men destined to ‘die soon.’ The projected imagery of graffiti scrawlings meshed with the musings of kids wasting their days in a pool hall instead of a classroom adds to the innovation of metatheatre. Brooks’ prophecy of doomed youth is a poignant them throughout.
The imagery projected on screen of graffiti scrawlings by teenage kids wasting their days in a pool hall instead of a classroom adds to the innovation of metatheatre.
Incorporating the work of the noted blacks writer Richard Wright (Native Son) provides historical relevance to the plight of young African American men, and the impact of racism on the families of color in America.
