Dominique Morisseau Passionately Targets School-to-Prison Pipeline

by Barry David Horwitz

“Pipeline” opens to public view the concept of the “school-to street-to-prison pipeline” for young black and brown males. Their families must think about how they can protect teenagers from attacks in school and dangers in the streets.

And we know the police can be a danger too. In flashing pre-show videos, we see police grabbing teens in schools and parks. Don’t miss African American Shakespeare Company’s first-rate portrayal of unequal schools and real life adult vs. teen points of view. Top-notch performances by six superb Bay Area actors.

When teenagers gets into trouble in school, the cycle begins. They become subject to reprimand, suspension, and expulsion. Any misstep can turn into a prison “pipeline” to lifelong disaster.

In Dominique Morisseau’s brilliant play, a deeply caring mother Nya (intense Leontyne Mbele-Mbong) is also a public-school teacher. Nya is agonizing over her son, Omari (electric Atlantis Clay) whom she moved to an elite private school to protect him. Mbele-Mbong does a thrilling job as Nya, the overwhelmed public-school teacher who is trying to save her son. In beautiful, lyrical speeches, she searches for solutions, taking us through a mother’s stages of awareness.

As her thoughtful son Omari, Clay goes through conflicts and struggles with grace and intensity. It’s a delight to watch him challenge adults and come up with answers in his touching performance.

Most of the students at Omari’s new school are white and come from wealthy families. Omari is attacked by a teacher who provokes him in a lesson about Richard Wright’s Native Son. The teacher triggers an emotional and aggressive response. “Pipeline” vividly shows Omari’s unsettling exposure to white privilege, and how it affects his teen age life. The explosive event between teacher and student in the elite and prejudiced school ignites the mother, the son, the father, the girlfriend into a reckoning.

Nya’s fellow teacher Laurie (impressive Kelly Rinehart) faces the same daily explosions in the underfunded public school where they teach. Rinehart strikingly embodies Laurie’s pain.

Each character delivers a stirring monologue that takes us deeper into the inequality and neglect in schools. The performances are electric and realistic, plunging us into the upheaval that surrounds our schools. Have the schools become merely places to train workers? Are they prisons themselves?

Michael Gene Sullivan is gripping as the angry divorced father Xavier, who focuses on easy solutions that money may fix. When Nya faces a crisis, Xavier is having a hard time breaking through to his son. Sullivan is powerful and engaging.

As the security guard Dun, Gary Moore delivers a charming and caring performance of a down to earth man, becoming a touchstone for the others. As the guard, Moore offers a solid masculine role model, who sensitively reaches out to Nya and Omari.

Ije Success plays Omari’s girlfriend Jasmine with flair and insight. In Morisseau’s play, the teens speak expressively and elegantly about their struggles. As Jasmine, Success wittily explains the reality of private school prejudice to the adults. Success and Clay both speak powerful truths that the adults cannot understand yet.

‘Pipeline,” directed with clarity and precision by L. Peter Callender, brings home the beauty and the challenge of understanding how a younger generation sees the world. We had better listen because they are speaking wisely to us.

“Pipeline” by Dominique Morisseau, directed by L. Peter Callender, lighting by Kevin Myrick, set by Giulio C. Perrrone, sound by Raymond Archie, costumes by Nia Jacobs, projections by Ramiro Segura, at African American Shakespeare Company, San Francisco. Info: african-americanshakes.org – to March 31, 2024.

Cast: Leontyne Mbele-Mbong, Ije Success, Atlantis Clay, Kelly Rinehart, Gary Moore, and Michael Gene Sullivan.

Banner photo: Leontyne Mbele-Mbong, Atlantis Clay, & Michael Gene Sullivan. Photo: Lindsey Mclntire